UC Davis Law immigration experts at forefront of international media coverage

UC Davis School of Law immigration experts Professor Holly Cooper and Dean Kevin R. Johnson were quoted widely by national and international media outlets in late June and early July, when immigration issues dominated the news cycle.

“In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity,” Cooper, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, told the Associated Press after visiting a Border Patrol facility holding migrant children in Texas.

Cooper is an attorney of record on the Flores settlement agreement, which sets  standards for the detention and release of juvenile migrant detainees. Her widely cited quote about the facility in Clint, Texas, along with other reports of poor conditions at Texas border facilities, led to a public outcry.

At the Flores attorneys’ behest, Federal Judge Dolly Gee subsequently ordered an independent monitor to act quickly to improve conditions at the facilities. The New York Times and Washington Post closely followed the developments, with both outlets quoting Cooper.

Just after news about the conditions at Clint broke, Johnson wrote an explainer about the Flores settlement for The Conversation. It was picked up by the Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle, among other outlets.

Also in late June, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in Department of Commerce v. New York, blocked a question about citizenship from the 2020 Census. Immigrant advocates have argued that if the Trump administration succeeds in adding the question, fewer immigrants will participate in the Census count.  Johnson wrote in The Conversation about the court’s decision. The Chicago Tribune also picked up this piece.

Johnson commented on another facet of the federal government's immigration policies when he spoke on July 5 to Pacific Standard about an agreement by Motel 6 to pay $10 million to guests whose names the motel chain gave to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Kevin R. Johnson is the law school’s dean, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and professor of Chicana/o studies at UC Davis. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.

Professor Holly S. Cooper ’98, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.