Chronicle Quotes Professor Johnson on Racial Profiling After Border Czar's Comments

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 14 about federal “border czar” Tom Homan’s suggestion that agents can question people “based on their physical appearance.”

Johnson referenced the 1975 Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce that holds that someone “looking” Mexican could be enough reason to stop the person near the southern U.S. border, as long as it was not the only reason.

“That ruling opens up the door to racial profiling in immigration enforcement,” Johnson said.

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.