Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have ordered the University of California, California State University and the state’s community colleges to hire undocumented students for on-campus jobs — his second veto of legislation aimed at extending aid to those who do not live in California legally.
The move has dashed the hopes of tens of thousands of students who were brought to the United States illegally as children and have been unable to obtain work permits to finance their education or to access research and teaching positions essential to their academic programs. An estimated 55,000 undocumented students attend California’s public universities, with the state home to one-fifth of the nation’s undocumented students.
Despite California’s “proud history” of expanding educational opportunities for undocumented students, Newsom said he was vetoing Assembly Bill 2586 because of the legal risks to state employees who could be seen as violating federal laws against hiring undocumented people.
“Given the seriousness of the potential consequences of this bill, which include potential criminal and civil liability for state employees, it is essential that the courts examine the legality of such a policy and the novel legal theory underlying this legislation before proceeding,” he said in his veto message.
Newsom said the UC and others could first seek clarity by asking a federal judge to rule on the legality of the bill before deciding whether to hire undocumented students.
Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, a graduate student at Cal State LA, said undocumented students were discouraged by the veto but would continue to fight for the opportunity to work as a movement that is “unashamed, unafraid and unstoppable.”
“We are ashamed and appalled that Governor Newsom has decided to cave to the anti-immigrant vitriol of Trump and Republicans and deny us the fair opportunities we deserve,” he said in a statement on behalf of all undocumented students in California.
Both UC and CSU have expressed concerns about the bill, saying it could cause them to violate a federal law that prohibits employers from hiring undocumented people, putting their students, the employees who hire them and billions of dollars in federal funding at risk. UC receives more than $12 billion in annual federal funding for research, student financial aid and health care. The system is the largest recipient of federally funded research ($3.8 billion last year) among U.S. higher education institutions.
The bill has drawn national attention because of its humanitarian implications, legal risks and potentially explosive politics. Illegal immigration is a key issue in the 2024 presidential election, amid a tight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, co-sponsored a bill in March that would cut federal funding for universities that hire undocumented people — and he specifically lambasted UC as a “left-wing” institution determined to implement a “lawless” bill.
Newsom’s veto of AB 2586 marked the second time this month that he has rejected legislation aimed at expanding services to undocumented immigrants. Earlier this month, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for interest-free home loans through a state-run program.
Both bills received support from a majority of Democrats, who argued that California should do more to help undocumented immigrants because they contribute to the economy and pay taxes. Republicans opposed them, saying California should prioritize funding for citizen services, and that providing aid would encourage more immigrants to enter California illegally.
The bills represent a tough decision for the Democratic governor in a presidential election year. If he were to side with his party’s base and support more aid for undocumented immigrants, Newsom would risk antagonizing Harris, a fellow California Democrat.
“There would be no way that California would not act on these things and not have it be part of the 2024 election cycle,” said Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant and expert on Latino politics.
He noted that Harris had taken a more conservative stance on immigration than most Democrats by supporting a bipartisan border security bill that failed after Trump opposed it. Passing the legislation in California could have complicated her efforts to win moderate voters in key states, Madrid said.
“Kamala Harris is trying to prevent these attacks,” he said. “She’s trying to protect herself from these attacks by running for the most conservative office on border security that a Democrat has ever held.”
Even within the UC system, some critics of the bill worried that Newsom would have given Republicans “red meat” against Democrats if he signed the bill.
In a statement released Sunday, UC said it believes undocumented students should have access to the resources and opportunities, including jobs, that all other students enjoy, and pledged to continue supporting them. The university supplements state grants and private scholarships with resources such as university legal aid and scholarships that provide hands-on learning with grants of up to $7,200.
“This is a complicated situation, and we recognize that the governor justified his veto based on concerns that federal law would prohibit the university from hiring undocumented students and that implementing this law could jeopardize our students, faculty, staff and significant federal funding,” UC said. “The university will continue to support our undocumented students, including expanding access to opportunities that provide undocumented students with valuable experiential learning and financial support.”
The UC did not say whether it would ask a federal judge to rule on the legality of hiring undocumented students, saying only that it would “continue to explore all options.”
Undocumented students received financial aid through Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, which provided work permits and protection from deportation to some young people who arrived in the United States as children. But many students were unable to obtain that status because then-President Trump rescinded the program and, under the Biden administration, a court order froze all applications.
Students who do not qualify for DACA protection now outnumber those who do. Of the estimated 86,800 undocumented students in California, only 37% are eligible for or have DACA. An additional 14,000 undocumented students graduate from California high schools each year, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.
A new UCLA study found that the number of new low-income undocumented students enrolled on UC and CSU campuses fell by half between 2015-16 and 2022-23. The study attributes the decline to the increasing difficulty of obtaining DACA status.
The students enjoy broad sympathy and support, even as attitudes toward illegal immigration have hardened. A Gallup poll in July showed that a majority of Americans wanted to reduce immigration, the highest proportion in two decades. But 81 percent favored giving people who arrived in the United States illegally as children the chance to become citizens if they met certain requirements — including 64 percent of Republicans surveyed.
In 2022, UCLA researchers presented a potential path forward for students by developing a new legal theory that argues that the federal ban on hiring undocumented people doesn’t apply to states because they aren’t specifically named as employers subject to sanctions in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Prior to that law, the legal analysis notes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress must use “unmistakably clear” language if it wants to regulate state governments.
Researchers at the UCLA School of Law’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy developed the theory, and 29 immigration and constitutional scholars, including Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, have pledged their support.
The students and their supporters launched a statewide campaign to urge the University of California and other public universities to adopt the theory, test the law, and hire the students. But the University of California, after consulting with several law firms and legal experts inside and outside the University of California, declined to do so, concluding that there were too many legal risks. Their concerns were based on precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts that have established federal supremacy over conflicting state immigration laws.
While the regents shelved action on the issue in January, Rep. David Alvarez (D-San Diego) pushed the bill forward, winning overwhelming support in the Assembly, 63-7, and in the Senate, 31-8. They plan to take the issue up again next January.
The bill would have prohibited UC, CSU and California community colleges from disqualifying any student for on-campus employment opportunities due to their failure to provide proof of federal work authorization.
