Michael Kagan is co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the William S. Boyd School of Law.On May 14, Professor Kagan published a column on Salon.com disputing a recent Department of Justice claim that immigrants who have not been legally admitted to the United States have no free speech rights. The government made the argument in a San Antonio federal court that is considering a lawsuit by Central American mothers who have protested the conditions of their detention by immigration authorities.
In the column, Professor Kagan says it is a case of government attorneys operating on "autopilot," without thinking about the implications of the arguments they are making. He points out that President Obama has applauded unauthorized immigrants who have campaigned publicly for immigration reform, so it is difficult to understand why the government would argue that they do not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment. He called on the President and Attorney General to retract the position.
Professor Kagan co-direct's Boyd's Immigration Clinic. He has published several columns with Salon.com. His legal scholarship has been published by the Georgetown Law Journal, Washington University Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Texas International Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Law Reform, and California Law Review, among others.
