Professors Johnson, Pérez Talk to ABC10 About Immigration Concerns Under Trump

Professors Kevin R. Johnson and Amagda Pérez appeared on ABC10 Sacramento’s To the Point with Alex Bell for an expansive Dec. 18 joint interview about the challenges California could face under President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in office.

Johnson broke down the respective approaches to immigration of Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Trump, during his first term. Obama and Biden enforced immigration laws but only Trump denigrated immigrants and characterized them as criminals, Johnson said.

Trump, who has promised mass deportations in his second term, has inspired fears of family separation, Pérez said. Such separations could result either from official policy — like the one Trump rescinded after facing widespread criticism in his first term — or circumstance, such as when a parent is arrested at a workplace and separated from children at home.

Kevin R. 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.

Professor Pérez co-directs UC Davis Law’s Immigration Law Clinic. A King Hall graduate from the class of 1991, Pérez has extensive experience working with immigrants of varied nationalities and other disenfranchised communities, both through the clinic and as executive director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.