Dean Johnson Comments on California Immigration Bill for Mercury-News
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for the San Jose Mercury-News on AB 1081, a bill sponsored by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano that would change procedures for local law enforcement in the handling of undocumented immigrants. The measure, known as the Trust Act, would require police to release undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes rather than hand them over to the federal government for possible deportation.
The bill was initially drafted as a response to the Obama administration's Secure Communities program, a deportation program that relies on cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement, but "has been reshaped as an antidote" to SB 1070, Arizona's controversial law, Dean Johnson said.
"The Trust Act shows that different states want different policies in immigration enforcement," said Dean Johnson. "It seems to me that we will have skirmishes like this until there is comprehensive national immigration reform."
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.