Decision comes after student hunger strike during week of UC Regents Meeting in San Francisco 

CONTACT

Hayley Burgess, UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, burgess@law.ucla.edu

San Francisco, CA – Over strong dissents from several regents, the UC Board of Regents and UC President Drake rejected undocumented students’ demands for equitable access to employment opportunities on campus through the Opportunity for All campaign, deferring for one year a May 2023 commitment that it would devise and implement a policy allowing the UC to hire students, regardless of immigration status. 

The decision came after 25 undocumented UC students launched a hunger strike to urge campus leadership to follow through on their May 2023 promise to remove hiring restrictions for students who don’t have access to DACA or any other form of federal work authorization. The Regents previously missed their own deadline to announce an implementation plan by November 2023, leaving undocumented students in limbo. 

Several regents expressed strong dissent from the Board’s decision, stressing the need for UC to lead in advancing equity for all students, regardless of immigration status and the need to support all students equally. 

“Our university let us down today. Our demand was simple and clear: we want equal access to employment opportunities on campus so that we aren’t relegated to a second class UC experience. Our classmates can apply for any job on campus, helping them not only get by financially on a daily basis but also advancing their careers, while we remain forced to rely on incredibly limited resources,” said Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, UCLA student and leader at Undocumented Student-Led Network (USN). “I’m deeply disappointed that the UC Regents and President Drake shirked their duties to the students they are supposed to protect and support. We as UC students deserve so much more from our university leadership. This is not the end of our fight for equality.”

“Our legal theory, which we presented to the regents in October 2022, makes clear: the University of California has the legal right to authorize the hiring of undocumented students today,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, Faculty Co-Director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law. “I have had the immense privilege of working with these students for the past couple of years, and I’ve seen firsthand how challenging it is to simultaneously pursue their studies and fight for their right to survive at the UC. It is deeply shameful that the UC is holding them back from achieving their full potential.”

“The UC had the opportunity to stand on the right side of history, and chose not to. The fight is far from over—our undocumented students have struggled for too long and too hard to give up. Their ability to work would not only benefit our students and their families, but the university as a whole,” said Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center. 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Leading scholars of immigration and constitutional law from around the country have shown the University of California has the power under existing law to provide its undocumented students equal access to educational employment opportunities. The consensus is clear: the UC has the right to employ all students, regardless of immigration status, today.

Because the protections provided by DACA have never been updated, almost all undocumented youth now entering higher education are not eligible for its protections. In California, there are already approximately 44,326 undocumented college students who are not eligible for DACA, and 27,000 undocumented students graduating from high school each year. Undocumented students in California cannot apply for jobs and other employment opportunities simply because of their status. This includes graduate student researcher and teaching assistant positions, work study jobs, paid internships, and student leadership positions in campus organizations, and other educational and professional opportunities for deeper involvement with their institutions.

About the Undocumented Student-Led Network:

The mission of the Undocumented Student-Led Network (USN) is to create a statewide network of immigrant youth leaders to work towards advancing an immigrant reform agenda. 

About UCLA CILP:

Founded in 2020, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law expands the law school’s role as a national leader in immigration law and policy, generating innovative ideas at the intersection of immigration scholarship and practice and serving as a hub for transforming those ideas into meaningful changes in immigration policy.  

About the UCLA Labor Center:

The UCLA Labor Center believes that a public university belongs to the people and should advance quality education and employment for all. The center’s research, education, and policy work lifts industry standards, creates jobs that are good for communities, and strengthens immigrant rights, especially for students and youth. 

About the UCLA Dream Resource Center: 

The UCLA Dream Resource Center (DRC), a program team of the UCLA Labor Center, trains the next generation of diverse leaders—immigrant youth and allies with lived experiences—to be at the forefront of social justice movements and achieve equity and justice for workers, families, and communities.