Dean Johnson Comments in NY Times, Christian Science Monitor
In the Times story, the dean commented on the Supreme Court's grant of certiorari in a case that will determine whether workers who use false Social Security will be subject to a mandatory two-year prison sentence for the crime of "aggravated identity theft." Dean Johnson commented that the ability to use aggravated identity theft charges in such cases has "given the federal government a huge lever" to use against undocumented workers in seeking their "voluntary" removal.
In the Christian Science Monitor, the dean analyzed a federal court ruling regarding the pineros, workers who do the extremely demanding work of planting pine trees in plantations in the Southern U.S. Many pineros are foreign guest workers who have frequently been exploited by employers. "It's sort of a prototypical, discrete, and insular minority that needs the protection of the law, but rarely invokes those protections," Dean Johnson stated in the article.
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.