Julianne Hing

May Day 2009 with Kevin Johnson

Today we’re asking people around the country one question: How do we talk about immigration reform in a time of economic recession?

First up is Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law, and an international expert on immigration, race, and civil rights law. Johnson also blogs at ImmigrationProf Blog. Here’s what he had to say.

RaceWire: How do we talk about immigration reform in a time of economic recession?

Kevin Johnson: There really is no difference. The real question is: how can we not talk about immigration now? Immigration politics is always complex and dicey. There’s never a “good” time to talk about complex and dicey issues.

But now we have an opportunity given the recession to think about all our options, to lay everything on the table and think about what will benefit everyone in this economy: immigrants, workers and the economy. We need to evaluate all of our options and create change based on what will benefit everyone.

Posted at 12:01 PM, May 01, 2009 in Immigration | Permalink | View Comments