Dean Johnson Contributes Commentary on Gates Arrest to NILP

Dean Kevin R. Johnson contributed a guest commentary on the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates by the Cambridge Police Department for the National Institute for Latino Policy (NILP). 

In the article, "The Gates Arrest, Racial Profiling, and Latinos," Dean Johnson notes that while the arrest has widely been seen as indicative of ongoing police use of racial profiling in ways that discriminate against African Americans, many have overlooked the fact that Latinos often face similar problems.  "Indeed, the problem is even more significant for Latinos, who also frequently suffer the sting of the use of race -- and racial and cultural markers -- in the enforcement of the immigration laws," he writes.

Dean Johnson lists examples of how racial profiling is used in immigration enforcement and notes that profiling used in terrorism investigations has often targeted Arabs and Muslims.

"The Gates case reveals what all minority groups should know and fear -- that reliance on statistical probabilities rather than individualized suspicion (as required by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution) is a mistake," writes Dean Johnson. "All minorities should be troubled by what the treatment of Henry Gates means about the continuing treatment of minorities by police in the United States."

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.