CalMatters
By Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters
The University of California suspended for a year its plan to allow undocumented students to acquire campus jobs, crushing a student-led movement more than a year in the making.
The decision all but halts an effort by UCLA law professors and student advocates to create a pathway for the estimated 4,000 undocumented UC students to earn a paycheck legally. While many students without legal immigrant protections receive state financial aid and have their tuition waived, those students are often on their own financially to cover rent, food and other necessary expenses to continue their studies. These students also are blocked from receiving federal grants, further intensifying their fiscal strain.
“We have concluded that the proposed legal pathway is not viable at this time,” said Michael Drake, president of the UC, at today’s regents meeting. He said the proposal is “inadvisable” and “carries significant risk for the institution and for those we serve.”
However, “as new information becomes available, we will evaluate that information, and if appropriate, move ahead,” he said.
Regents, who make up the top governing board of the UC, voted to formally rescind a policy it adopted in May to explore implementing the hiring plan. Undocumented students in the audience screamed through tears, some who were on a hunger strike since Thursday to pressure the UC to adopt the hiring measure.
“Cowards!” a student yelled. “Shame,” another said. “I hope you live with this for the rest of your life,” said another.
“I’m deeply disappointed that the UC Regents and President Drake shirked their duties to the students they are supposed to protect and support,” said Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, a UCLA undocumented student and leader at Undocumented Student-Led Network, in a statement. “We as UC students deserve so much more from our university leadership. This is not the end of our fight for equality.”
Ten regents voted in support of the motion to rescind the proposal for a year six opposed. One voter abstained.
“I can’t think of a moment where I’ve been more disappointed sitting around this board table,” said John Pérez, a UC regent and member of a working group to explore the plan. He voted no.
Legal theory
Core to the novel legal argument of the UCLA coalition Opportunity For All is that while a 1986 federal law bars employers from hiring undocumented immigrants, the UC, as a state agency, is exempt. “Under governing U.S. Supreme Court precedents, if a federal law does not mention the states explicitly, that federal law does not bind state government entities,” the coalition’s 2022 legal memo said. Nothing in that federal law “expressly binds or even mentions state government entities.”
Pérez said that “we have gotten so focused on the question of what the law clearly says today that we’re losing sight of the moral imperative of what the law should be interpreted as being.”
But Drake said the risks were too great. Human resources employees and legal staff “might be subject to criminal or civil prosecution if they knowingly participate in hiring practices deemed impermissible under federal law,” he said. He said the UC “will be subject to civil fines, criminal penalties, or debarment from federal contracting if the university is found to be in violation of the Federal Immigration Reform and Control Act,” the 1986 federal law. The billions in federal research grants could also be at risk, Drake said.
The argument to hire undocumented students has the support of some of the country’s most prominent immigration law scholars, who signed the legal memo backers of Opportunity for All published in 2022. Meanwhile, more than 500 faculty have signed a December letter saying “we will hire undocumented students into educational employment positions for which they are qualified once given authority to do so by the UC.”
Student advocates of Opportunity For All pushed the UC Regents to take the group’s legal theory seriously. Last May, the regents voted to consider whether the UC could hire undocumented students and what that process would look like. Students were initially jubilant, but months later were furious when the UC blew past its own deadline on how to proceed at the November meeting. Several dozen students risked arrest by crossing the stanchions separating them from the regents, shutting down the meeting. That prompted a meeting between advocates and several regents.
Those regents told the students then that they were committed to a full roll-out of the plan by this month, but they were not speaking for the full board.
“It is deeply shameful that the UC is holding them back from achieving their full potential,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, a UCLA immigration law scholar and one of the architects of the legal theory arguing undocumented students can legally work at the UC.
Recent federal rules
The ability to work legally is a matter of survival for immigrants in the U.S. But while more than half a million undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. young are allowed to have jobs through the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, federal courts have halted the federal government’s ability to accept new applications. But even if the courts permit new applications, most of today’s young undocumented immigrants wouldn’t benefit. That’s because DACA applies to individuals who arrived in the U.S. by June 15, 2007 and are at least 15 years old upon applying, leaving most young students today ineligible.
In 2023, just 1% of all DACA recipients were under 21 years old.
“As a leader of an American Indian nation, for us to sit here and be so concerned and keep talking about risk when the students and their families have gone through so much risk just to get here, only can strike me as patronizing,” said Gregory Sarris, a UC regent.
The UC has a history of upholding legal protections for undocumented students. The university sued the Trump administration in 2017 for ending the deferred action program. That legal saga culminated with a Supreme Court decision upholding the program in 2020. DACA lived on, but lower court decisions since then have blocked the Biden administration from processing new applications.
But Pérez said the UC didn’t lead, as Drake said, but reacted to student, faculty and community advocacy to challenge the Trump administration. Roughly 17,000 Californians don’t qualify for the deferred program because of decisions by the Trump administration and the courts.
Donald Trump is likely to emerge as the Republican nominee for the oval office. A Trump presidency could lead to a redux in the fight between the UC and the federal government over immigration rights for the country’s young residents.
“What happens if we have a new administration?” asked Jose Hernandez, a UC regent who supported the hiring plan. “I don’t even think this is going to be considered to be implemented, to tell you the truth, so I think we’re squandering a great opportunity.”
Work and financial aid
Abraham Cruz, 25, is a UCLA senior and undocumented. His DACA status lapsed a few years ago and he has been unable to renew it, so no employer can legally hire him.
He found a loophole, but it’s uncommon: Cruz is part of a labor cooperative where he’s his own boss. He consults clients on immigration policy, research and writing, he said.
Still, he’d rather have a campus job, where managers know to prioritize students’ academics over work. Or he could work with a professor and pursue research in his field of labor studies.
Drake, UC’s president, said in November that he wants to protect students from any legal consequences, but Cruz said students are already assuming the risk of working under the table or in dangerous jobs, often below minimum wage.
I don’t know what the UC thinks, but if it doesn’t offer jobs on campus students are going to have to find a way … to come up with that money,” he said. “The best thing the UC could do is provide these safe jobs for students.”
Pérez echoed that view. “We can fool ourselves into thinking that our students aren’t working. They’re not,” he said. “They’re working in underground jobs subjected to inhumane and horrific conditions.”
Another option for undocumented students is receiving an academic fellowship. But fellowships and scholarships are financial aid — and no student can receive aid above the state cap, which is equal to what a campus calculates is the cost of attendance. Even the most generous financial aid package from the UC still expects a student to find $8,000 to $10,000 of their own money each year to pay for tuition, housing, food and other costs. Academic fellowships and outside scholarships can’t exceed that $,8000 to $10,000 personal contribution.
And while students with income could see their financial aid decrease, most undocumented students have low enough incomes to qualify for California’s marquee financial aid tool, the Cal Grant, which waives tuition.
“I’m frustrated, I’m pissed off, I’m angry that we’re at this point,” said Keith Ellis, a regent representing UC alumni. “I feel like we’ve led on the students, that we’ve lied to you in some ways, and for what it’s worth, I apologize.”
This article was originally published by CalMatters.
There’s a reason aliens, legal and illegal, aren’t allowed to hire a employees. Federal law requires employees to use a SSN. Aliens must apply for a SSN through USCIS, and then generally must have a valid VISA. I assume the DACA program is an exception to this. The loophole mentioned relates to being a sole-proprietor/contractor. These types of businesses don’t require an SSN to report on their tax return. They can apply for what is known as a Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN) from the IRS. Any one can get an ITIN including a resident or non-resident alien. My wife for example got one for the first year of our marriage before she received her green card.
Tuition waived? Financial aid? Do I think when my 6th generation Californian daughter applies to a UC school in a couple of years will receive free tuition? Financial aid? I doubt it . Screaming and crying? Ungrateful, spoiled brats. Get them out of our Country.Now.
@ Hammonds- Totally agree with your common sense reasoning… unfortunately, your (our shared view) will be construed as “racist” by the liberal left socialists… Get ready.
Not really racist, just selfish and ignorant.
Oh, CW, Chalf, HH are really racist. Also selfish and ignorant.
Hammonds and Coast – these kids want to work to help pay for their education. They’re not asking for handouts, they’re trying to WORK. Did you miss that part? Fear and hate are truly blinding.
What part of they are here ILLEGALLY do you not get?
Why should US taxpayers do anything for them. If you want to do it then fine. Send them a check.
How many have you taken into your home to help them with food and shelter. Please let us know.
CHALF – you still have no idea what you’re talking about. They were brought here by others, not their decision. Why penalize young adults who are trying to better themselves and eventually help better our society?
Again, they’re not asking for handouts, they’re asking to WORK. Why don’t you want to even let them work?
6th generation should have plenty of land and resources at their disposal to provide the means for an education of their choosing, unless a theoretical 5th generation idiot squandered what was given to them.
Wow! You’ve been able to afford living here for 6 generations? Nice! Wouldn’t it be cool if other kids were able to attend a university so as to better their life, even if they have no means of affording any of the costs? I think so.
Oh and also, the only one screaming and crying is you.
My ancestors helped build and fund this state. My problem with this is that the kids who are getting free tuition etc are ILLEGALLS! If they’re here legally I’d be all for helping them better their lives. This is the deference to me.
So, because of decision their parents made when they were kids, that they had no control over, just screw em, huh?
Cool that your great-great-great….. grandparents made the decision to come here and “help build” California, a decision in which you (or their children) had no control over either. I bet that works out great for you. Must be nice with all that old money (and probably land) living near Hammonds.
Were your ancestors here legally?
LOL, my ancestors were here pre-revolution and fought under Washington. But who gives a fuck about that stuff really?
And I’m fine with college students, who are clearly on a track to become makers and net positives to our economy have the ability to work.
Dude… all of our ancestors helped build this country. Some of our current family members are helping building this country. And get this… our future generations will build this country. And.. we were all illegal at one point so, get over it.
How were we all illegal? I have all my fathers and on my Moms side, great granfathers LEGAL papers. Maybe YOURS came in illegally, most of our ancestors did not.
“My ancestors helped build and fund this state.”
Perhaps, but you didn’t.
” If they’re here legally I’d be all for helping them better their lives.”
No you wouldn’t.
Difference
Chairty begins at home. Take care of the US citizens that need assistance, not law breakers that came across our border. Glad you stay true to form. US last….American taxpayer…last…..Druggies first, store owners last….Criminals first…law abiding last. Everyone is just so selfish compared to the compassionate moral one.
What law did they “break” when their parents brought them here?
I’d rather have 1000 “illegals” with a college degree and the ability to work to help pay for that degree than one more uneducated US citizen spewing ignorance and draining the welfare pool.
Your inability and flat out refusal to understand and comprehend anything but ‘Murica first is laughable.
Charity begins nowhere with you.
“Everyone is just so selfish compared to the compassionate moral one.”
Well, yes, you’re selfish compared to compassionate moral people … duh.
We’re all here illegally. This is native land.
@ Anonymous- Is that a serious response or just trolling as usual…? Grow up. Then you support Putin taking over Ukraine right? … as it was part of the Russian Empire- What an insane post. Between you and Sacjon, it’s hard to read these EDHAT comments lately.
COAST – yeah, confronting your ignorance and hatred daily must be hard for you to read. I’m glad though. Confronting and calling out racism and ignorance is fun.
Now, since CHALF has chickened out, want to take a stab at explaining what law these young, intelligent students broke?
So gross that when someone you don’t like tries to pay their own way, you cry and moan, and then if they use your tax dollars because they can’t work, you cry even harder. Face it, you just hate these people.
blah blah blah hate hate hate…..
Come on chicken, answer the question. What law did these kids break?
Love to get your goat Coastie. Not sure how you equate a modern day dictator to native Americans and colonization but that would require several history courses and critical thinking and you’ve got important edhat comments to post!
My daughter is Cherokee
That’s awesome Hound, but so what?
Ew. Get your xenophobic ideologies out of our country. Now.
It is only xenophobic if you fear LEHAL immigration. Still do not get they came here illegally?
Not true at all. Show us the definition of xenophobic that supports that lie.
Still waiting, CHALF…… you made a big claim, now back it up. Otherwise, it’s just another lie.
The UC system can allow for undocumented employment, but chooses not to because it might lose federal funding? Did I read that right?
Love the screen name LOL! …. that you, Voice?
Thank you, but no it isn’t. I just want to fit in.
👍
Could the high cost of education be reduced if the universities reduced their labor costs?
BFT4ME – Possibly? Seems to have an affect on tuition, they’d have to cut a LOT of labor costs, which means a LOT less services on campus (eg, dining, maintenance, health, athletics maybe?). Not sure losing resources to lower tuition is the way to go though.
Interesting. If the young folks who are legal citizens wanted to take these jobs, it wouldn’t even be an issue. Problem is they don’t, and that’s basically a reflection of what’s happening at large around here.