Trump's tweet on migrant caravan off the mark, Dean Johnson tells Talk Media News

A tweet by President Donald Trump about the caravan of thousands of migrants headed from Central America to the United States did not reflect entrenched law, Dean Kevin R. Johnson told Talk Media News.

Trump tweeted that “People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away.”

“I don’t think the president’s tweet at least is firmly supported in the law,” Johnson told Talk Media News. “There are exceptions, for example, if somebody has been firmly resettled in another country, but there’s no obligation that they seek relief in another country or that they somehow try to establish resettlement in another country before coming to the United States.”

Kevin R. Johnson is dean, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and professor of 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.