Dean Johnson Comments on Deportation Proceedings for Belfast Telegraph

Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented on the deportation proceedings of an Irish man with ties to the Irish Republican Army for the Belfast Telegraph. 

Pol Brennan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 1977 after being caught with explosives and a handgun but escaped with 37 Irish Republican Army prisoners in 1983, has been in the custody of immigration officials since January 2008 when he was stopped at a Texas checkpoint and found to have an expired U.S. work permit.  (Had Brennan still been in prison in the United Kingdom he would have been released in 1998 under the terms of the "Good Friday Agreement" negotiated as part of the Northern Ireland peace process, and the U.K. ended its extradition drive against him in 2000.) Brennan faces deportation over a 1995 felony gun conviction and 2005 misdemeanor assault.

Dean Johnson told the Telegraph that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 "greatly limited judicial review of deportation orders -- especially of people convicted of crimes."

"The 1996 immigration reform also made all firearms and drug convictions aggravated felonies, which also make it a priority for the Department of Homeland Security to deport you," Dean Johnson said. "Criminal aliens in general are probably the most disfavored under the current immigration laws."

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.