San Francisco Chronicle

UC still bans hiring undocument­ed students

After signaling plans to lift the University of California’s ban on hiring undocument­ed students to work at the university, the UC Regents reversed course Thursday and left the hiring ban in place for at least another year.

At the regents’ meeting in San Francisco, UC President Michael Drake said legal experts had advised the university that the hiring plan, which Drake had supported, stood on shaky ground and could expose the students, other employees and the university itself to civil fines and criminal penalties.

“We have concluded that the proposed legal pathway is not viable at this time, and in fact carries significan­t risk for the institutio­n and for those we serve,” Drake told the board, which approved the postponeme­nt on a 10-6 vote.

Over the next year, he said, “we can expand the support we are currently providing to undocument­ed students in other ways,” with new “experienti­al learning programs,” while urging state and federal lawmakers to repeal restrictio­ns on hiring the undocument­ed.

The action drew shouted protests from undocument­ed immigrants at UC, who had held a hunger strike for several days in advance of the vote.

“Our university let us down today,” Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, a UCLA student and leader of the Undocument­ed Student-Led Network, said after the meeting in a statement released by advocacy groups. “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. …This is not the end of our fight for equality.”

A 1986 federal law prohibits employers from knowingly hiring undocument­ed immigrants. The University of California, whose enrollment of 280,000 includes about 4,000 undocument­ed students, began to reconsider its policy after dozens of teachers of immigratio­n and constituti­onal law signed a letter in September 2022 saying the 1986 law “does not bind state government entities” because its text does not mention the states.

At the request of the UCLA Labor Center, the regents voted last May to consider repealing the hiring ban in six months.

But in November, they put off action until Thursday’s vote, which postponed any further action until January 2025.

Drake said Thursday that the university has provided strong support for undocument­ed students, “outstandin­g young people who have overcome obstacles and achieved at the highest academic levels.”

“We have establishe­d campus-based support centers, provided access to legal services, advocated for state and federal policies that bring in additional funding, and gone to the U.S. Supreme Court” in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program allowing migrants brought to the United States as children to remain in the country and eventually become citizens, Drake said.

“I know that many in our community will be disappoint­ed that we are unable to take immediate action. As an individual, I would like nothing more than to do so, right here, right now, because it is the right thing to do.” But it is not the right time, Drake said, because of the potential legal risks to the university and its employees and students.

A law professor who sided with the students said the decision was wrong, both legally and morally.

“The University of California has the legal right to authorize the hiring of undocument­ed students today,” said Ahilan Arulananth­am, co-director of the Center for Immigratio­n Law and Policy at UCLA and a signer of the 2022 letter.

“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.”