Dean Johnson Publishes Op-ed on Immigration Policy and Race in Daily Journal

Dean Kevin R. Johnson published an op-ed on “Discriminatory immigration policy, past and present” in the January 17 edition of the Daily Journal. President Trump’s recent racially charged comments about immigrants from Haiti and Africa “echo a long tradition of racism in American immigration law and policy," Dean Johnson writes.

Dean Johnson cites laws that limited Chinese immigration in the 1800s, quota systems put in place by Congress in the 1920s to limit the immigration of “inferior races,” the mass deportation of Mexican immigrants under “Operation Wetback” in the 1950s, and other examples of racially motivated immigration policies. Under the guise of protecting American workers, the Trump administration has followed a similar course, pursuing policies that reduce immigration by people of color from Mexico, China, and India while focusing deportation efforts on Latinos, Dean Johnson writes.

“Trump's immigration policies include something old and something new,” Dean Johnson writes. “They reflect the history of concerns with immigrants who are racially and culturally different from the Anglo Saxon norm. But the president's express reliance on racially charged arguments to justify his policies is in conflict with this nation's steady progress toward racial tolerance.”

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