Dean Johnson Comments on Dream Act for Bee
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for the Sacramento Bee on Governor Jerry Brown's recent signing of the California Dream Act, which allows undocumented students who came to the country before age 16 and attended California high schools access to public financial aid in higher education.
Dean Johnson said that in California, where Latinos are a prominent part of the electorate, the politics "are just different" than in other states that recently have passed strict anti-immigration laws. In those states, anti-immigrant sentiment is in part a response to "a tough economic climate" and a desire to "find a culprit for what's going on," he said.
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.