Dean Johnson Comments for Capital Public Radio Immigration Documentary
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for a Capital Public Radio documentary feature on immigration. The program aired on CPR's The View from Here on October 29.
On the program, Dean Johnson talks about how roughly half of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States have overstayed their visas. Marriage is the most common path to permanent legal status, but that process has become lengthy, he said.
"In 1986 Congress passed some limitations on marriage visas because the concern was there was massive marriage fraud going on," Dean Johnson said. "Now you have conditional lawful permanent resident status if you marry a citizen for two years. And then you have to file the paper work after those two years to become a lawfully permanent resident unconditionally."
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.