Professor Johnson Writes for Daily Journal About Evolution of U.S. Immigration Enforcement
Professor Kevin R. Johnson wrote a June 30 essay for the Daily Journal, "How courts built federal control over immigration in America."
The piece traces the history of the U.S. Constitution's silence on immigration to the federal government now having the power to regulate it. Johnson points out that the framers of the Constitution wanted to encourage settlement and immigration into the colonies.
But Johnson writes, "As in many other areas, the framers of the Constitution could not envision dramatic changes in circumstances, such as ease of modern travel and the mass movement of people across borders."
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.