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When Spanish-speaking people are questioned about their immigration status during a police stop, it is a clear case of racial profiling, says a ºÙºÙÊÓƵ law professor and director of the Chicana/o studies program. At the request of the California Attorney General's Office, Professor Kevin Johnson recently gave his legal views about such police stops. The request was triggered by Assemblyman Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, who asked the state to issue an opinion regarding incidences in which Southern California police asked about the immigration status of Latino drivers stopped on the suspicion of violating a criminal law. The state will weigh Johnson's opinions, as well as a number of other legal viewpoints, before issuing its opinion by September, according to Rodney Lilyquist, senior assistant attorney general and chief of the opinion unit. "Racial profiling can take a variety of forms," says Johnson. "In this situation, police used language ability as a proxy for race: By asking only Spanish speakers if they were in this country legally, it, by definition, almost exclusively impacts Latinos." Johnson says racial profiling has a detrimental effect on Latino communities because it subjects their residents to questions not inflicted on others. "It undermines Latinos' status and place, and their feelings of belonging to our society," Johnson says. Well over 90 percent of Latinos live in this country lawfully, leaving only a small percentage that are undocumented, he points out. Opinions from the Attorney General's Office can be found on the Internet at .