KNX radio in L.A. interviews Dean Johnson about migrant caravan at U.S.-Mexico border

Dean Kevin R. Johnson spoke to Los Angeles’ KNX radio station on April 29, just after a caravan of Central American asylum seekers arrived at the Mexico-California border.

KNX reporter Bob Brill asked Johnson to distinguish between the asylum seekers - many of whom cite widespread gang violence as a reason for fleeing their home countries - and people who live in the midst of widespread gang violence in the United States.

“There is a legal system in place here,” Johnson said. “While it has some flaws, there are ways to use the legal system and the law-enforcement system to protect yourself.”

The Central American asylum seekers, Johnson explained, maintain they were without such protections in their home countries.

“The claim basically is that gang violence is so rampant, law enforcement authorities cannot and will not protect the population,” Johnson said.

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.