University of California Shelves Undocumented Worker Hiring Plan

University of California regents voted Thursday to table action for at least a year on a plan to allow unauthorized immigrants to be hired on campus.

UC President Michael Drake said a legal pathway for the hiring plan wasn’t viable at this time and carried significant risks to the institution.

“For that reason, it is inadvisable for the university to initiate implementation right now,” he said.

Student organizers in 2022 launched a campaign calling for UC to hire immigrants without regard to their legal status, citing a novel argument that federal law does not prevent state government entities like the university system from hiring undocumented immigrants.

Drake and UC regents had committed in May of last year to have a working group produce an implementation plan for the proposal at the system’s 10 campuses. But the regents in November said they would miss a self-imposed end of the month deadline for release of the plan with Drake, citing numerous legal considerations.

Twenty-five undocumented students earlier this week went on hunger strike to pressure university leaders to take action on the plan.

Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, a student organizer at the University of California, said Drake and the regents had shirked their duty to students.

“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,” he said in a statement. “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.”