The University of California is considering a proposal to break legal ground by hiring immigrant students without work authorization inwhat would be a test of federal law that could dramatically alter tens of thousands of young lives.
A coalition of UC students and scholars across the nation are urging the UC system to challenge a 1986 federal law barring the hiring of immigrants without legal status by asserting a novel legal argument that it does not apply to states. California is home to 1 in 5 of the nation’s college students without legal authorization.
Such students were given a lifeline under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — better known as DACA — which granted work permits and protection from deportation to certain youth who were brought to the United States as children and are in the country without legal status.
But the future of DACA is in jeopardy. The Trump administration ended the program five years ago, and a court ruling limited the government to only granting DACA renewals — not accepting new applications — which has shut out a new generation of recipients. This year, an estimated 100,000 immigrant youth graduated from high school without legal status or DACA benefits — including about 27,000 in California. About 44,000 students without DACA attend California colleges, which means many are prohibited from entering the labor market.
“At the University of California, students who cannot access DACA are being systematically...
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