Professors Johnson, Shanske Discuss State Lawmakers' Proposals Regarding ICE

Professors Kevin R. Johnson and Darien Shanske spoke to media about Democratic California lawmakers’ legislative responses to the federal immigration crackdown, including measures lent new urgency by outrage over the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Johnson talked to CalMatters for its Jan. 28 story headlined “California Democrats have new plans for confronting ICE.”  The report addressed bills including a measure authored by Bay Area state Sens. Scott Wiener and Aisha Wahab that would make it easier for people to sue federal agents over civil rights violations. The Senate advanced the bill on Jan. 27.

Shanske spoke to San Francisco's KQED public radio on Jan. 29 about a bill introduced by San Francisco Assemblyman Matt Haney that would tax for-profit detention center operators 50% of annual contract revenue and reinvest the funds in services supporting immigrant communities.

Read the CalMatters story and about the KQED report.

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 is the director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies and 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.

Darien Shanske is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis. His academic interests include taxation, particularly state and local taxation, local government law, public finance, and political theory, particularly jurisprudence.