N.Y. Times Quotes Professor Johnson About ICE and Racial Profiling
Professor Kevin R. Johnson commented for an Oct. 24 New York Times article, "Can ICE Stop People Solely Based on Their Race?" Johnson offered context about how a Supreme Court decision from 1975 is influencing immigration enforcement today. That ruling allowed immigration agents to use “Mexican appearance” as one factor - but not the only - as justification to stop and question people about their citizenship.
“Since race can be one factor, in the exercise of discretion, it can become the dominant factor in an immigration stop,” Johnson said. “So it’s not surprising that for years you’ve heard the Latino community complaining not unreasonably that immigration stops are based on race.”
Kevin R. Johnson is a distinguished professor of law, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law. Johnson is the director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies and also has an appointment as professor of Chicana/o studies at UC Davis. He served as dean of UC Davis Law from 2008 to 2024. Johnson is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law and civil rights.