King Hall Experts Weigh in on Trump's Immigration Agenda
Leading media outlets and others have sought the expertise of UC Davis Law immigration law Professors Kevin R. Johnson and Gabriel “Jack” Chin in assessing President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.
In the first few days of his second term, Trump has attempted to revoke birthright citizenship and declared an emergency at the southern border, among many other actions targeting undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers.
Chin spoke to the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor about Trump’s executive order attempting to block citizenship for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. Trump issued the order Jan. 20, his first day back in office.
Curbing birthright citizenship – historically viewed as guaranteed under the 14th Amendment – would be a “heavy lift” for Trump, Chin told the Monitor. (California and 21 other states already have sued to block the order).
But even though the order likely will fail in court, “there can be a lot of suffering between when a test case begins and a test case reaches final results,” Chin told the Times as part of a story focused on the concerns of undocumented women who intend to give birth in the United States.
Johnson told the Sacramento Bee and Capital Public Radio’s Insight with Vicki Gonzalez that the U.S. Supreme Court, despite its conservative majority, likely would rule against Trump on the birthright citizenship issue.
“If he ends up losing in the Supreme Court, as he has in the past, he will say ‘The Supreme Court stopped me from delivering on my promise to you -- it’s not my fault,’” Johnson said of Trump.
Johnson also participated in Bay Area public radio state KALW’s special Jan. 21 event “Project 2025 Arrives – Immigration and the Justice System.”
In the days before Trump took office, Johnson lent historical context to a Jan. 18 ABC7 News Bay Area report on how mass deportations under Trump could play out. Johnson also spoke about the history of mass deportations at a Jan. 17 San Francisco event at which state Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) and Assemblywoman Liz Ortega (D-Hayward) also spoke.
On Jan. 15, Johnson participated in the Consular Accountability Project event “Challenging Visa Denials and Inadmissibility Policies Under Trump 2.0.” Johnson discussed the recent Supreme Court case Muñoz v. Department of State as part of the panel “Holding the State Department Accountable in the Trump Era.”
Chin is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and holder of the Edward L. Barrett Jr. Endowed Chair at UC Davis School of Law. He is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.
Johnson is a distinguished professor of law, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law, and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law. Johnson also has an appointment as professor of Chicana/o studies at UC Davis. He served as dean of UC Davis Law from 2008 to 2024. Johnson is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.