Dean Johnson Comments on Immigration Raids for KCRA-3

Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for Sacramento television station KCRA-3 on efforts by local churches and synagogues to support undocumented immigrants in the face of expected large-scale “raids” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sacramento's largest Jewish synagogue, Congregation B'nai Israel, is acting as an official sanctuary site, prompting questions as to whether ICE agents could pursue immigrants taking shelter there.

"It's something the government hasn't done," Johnson said. "But there might not be anything under the law that would prohibit that."

In order to access a private business, ICE agents need a warrant, Dean Johnson said.

"If there's a judicially authorized warrant [business owners] have to make all their property available," Johnson said. "What employers don't have to do is let ICE look at private parts of the workplace that are not open to the public, absent a warrant."

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.