Dean Johnson Comments for Media on Obama Immigration Plan
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for media including the Washington Times and Capital Public Radio on President Obama's recent announcement of a set of executive actions with regard to immigration enforcement. Some critics of the plan have threatened legal action, but Dean Johnson said that Obama's actions would be difficult to challenge in court.
"People might disagree with the positions that he took in his program, and people might disagree with some of the initiatives, but I think in terms of the lawfulness of the program, the president has taken pretty moderate and legal measures that are well within the constitutional mainstream of what presidents have the discretionary power to do with regard to immigration," Dean Johnson said in an interview broadcast on the Capital Public Radio program Insight.
Dean Johnson also said in his Insight interview that Obama's plan provides only temporary relief for some undocumented immigrants, and that only Congress can institute comprehensive, long-term reform.
"There are many undocumented immigrants who live under the threat of removal from United States and even that temporary relief, that temporary security, gives them some ability to function more fully as members of our community," he said. "That's a benefit, and I don't want to belittle that benefit, but only Congress can make that a long-term, more permanent path to legalization."
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.
Washington Times