Green Card Holders at the Border After Blanche v. Lau: Travel Risk and Reentry Practice

Kevin R. Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Law and Chicanx Studies Emeritus | UC Davis School of Law

Kevin R. Johnson is Distinguished Professor of Law and Chicanx Studies Emeritus at UC Davis School of Law, Director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies, and the former Mabie/Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law. He served as Dean of UC Davis School of Law from 2008 to 2024, the longest term in the school’s history, and is one of the most-cited immigration law scholars in the United States.

• Education & Credentials

Professor Johnson earned his A.B. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced at the international law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe.

• Recognition & Leadership

He was named one of the 10 Most-Cited Immigration Law Faculty in the U.S. for 2016-2020, and his book Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border received the International Latino Book Awards’ Best Reference Book honor. He is the inaugural recipient of the AALS Michael A. Olivas Award for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Mentoring in the Legal Academy, was named Hispanic National Bar Association Law Professor of the Year in 2006, was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003, and has been an American Bar Foundation Fellow since 2016.

• Professional Involvement

Professor Johnson has held leadership positions in the Association of American Law Schools and the American Bar Association. He served on the board of directors of Legal Services of Northern California from 1996 to 2022, including more than ten years as board President, and on the board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 2006 to 2011. He blogs regularly at the Immigration blog and is quoted frequently by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other national outlets.

• Experience

On the UC Davis law faculty since 1989, he has taught immigration law, civil procedure, complex litigation, and Critical Race Theory, receiving the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award. His books include Understanding Immigration Law (fourth edition forthcoming 2026, co-authored with Raquel Aldana and others) and Immigration Law and Social Justice (third edition forthcoming 2026), and his article “An Immigration Gideon for Lawful Permanent Residents” appeared in the Yale Law Journal.

Raquel E. Aldana, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law | UC Davis School of Law

Raquel E. Aldana is the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law. She joined UC Davis in 2017 as the inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity and returned to full-time law teaching in 2020. Her teaching spans immigration law and policy, criminal procedure, asylum and refugee law, Crim migration, and comparative forced displacement.

• Education & Credentials

Professor Aldana earned bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish, summa cum laude, from Arizona State University in 1993 and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1997. She began her career as an associate at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and as a staff attorney at the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington, DC.

• Recognition & Leadership

Her honors include the American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2019) and recognition as an ABA Hispanic Legal Trailblazer (2022). She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala, served as Co-Director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies from 2021 to 2025, and co-edits the UC Press Critical Race Theory book series with Professor Kevin R. Johnson.

• Professional Involvement

For over a decade she has served on the Latin American and Caribbean Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative, including as its Chair from 2020 to 2023. She is a Regent of the International Bar Association’s Foundation, previously served as co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers, and serves on multiple nonprofit boards, including Oasis Legal Services.

• Experience

Professor Aldana was a law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV, from 2000 to 2009 and at McGeorge School of Law from 2009 to 2017, where she served as Associate Dean for Scholarship and Director of the Inter-American Program. She has authored or edited five books and published more than thirty law review articles or book chapters, including co-authoring Understanding Immigration Law (fourth edition forthcoming 2026), with research spanning immigrant rights, immigrant trauma, criminal justice, and transitional justice.

Amagda Pérez, Senior Continuing Lecturer and Co-Director of the Immigration Law Clinic | UC Davis School of Law

Amagda Pérez is Senior Continuing Lecturer and Co-Director of the Immigration Law Clinic at UC Davis School of Law and an attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, where she has served as Executive Director. In the clinic, she supervises second- and third-year law students in the preparation of deportation defense cases for indigent immigrant clients.

• Education & Credentials

Professor Pérez earned her B.A. in Spanish and Chicano Studies, cum laude, from the University of California, Davis in 1988 and her J.D. from UC Davis School of Law in 1991.

• Recognition & Leadership

She served as Director of the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic from 2008 to 2013, as Director of the California Rural Citizenship Campaign, and as Board Chair of the Central Valley Partnership for Citizenship. She recently received the Defensor de Justicia Award.

• Professional Involvement

She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the La Raza Lawyers Association of Sacramento, and the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association, and a trainer with the Benchmark Institute. She served on the board of the Legal Aid Association of California from 1998 to 2005, including as Board Chair from 2001 to 2003.

• Experience

Through her extensive work with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, she has represented immigrants of varied nationalities and other disenfranchised communities in immigration and poverty law matters. Her publications include work on good moral character and

SESSION 1 – Pre-Travel Risk Assessment for Green Card Clients After Blanche v. Lau | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session examines how the Supreme Court’s June 2026 decision in Blanche v. Lau reshaped the legal standard for treating returning lawful permanent residents as applicants for admission at the border, and what that shift means for immigration attorneys advising LPR clients before international travel. Attorneys will learn to identify the highest-risk client profiles, including those with pending criminal charges, prior CIMTs, or extended absences, and to build pre-departure documentation strategies that account for the new enforcement climate. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for pre-travel risk assessment, Crim migration coordination protocols, and waiver-readiness checklists applicable to real client scenarios.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Port-of-Entry Response and Deferred Inspection Practice for Returning Green Card Holders | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session covers what happens after a returning green card holder is pulled into secondary inspection at a U.S. port of entry following the Supreme Court’s June 2026 decision in Blanche v. Lau. Attorneys will learn the procedural sequence from secondary inspection through deferred inspection appointments, including the status consequences of parole versus admission, Form I-407 pressure tactics, and how to prepare clients for the critical deferred inspection window. Attendees will leave with a working knowledge of the practitioner’s intervention points at each stage of post-Blanche port-of-entry enforcement.