The California Senate Education Committee passed AB 2586, the Opportunity For All Act, in a 5-1 vote on July 3. If enacted into law, the bill would make it so California public universities would be able to hire students for campus jobs regardless of immigration and work authorization status, with an exception for positions where work authorization is explicitly required by federal law.
The bill’s advocates celebrated its passing through the Senate Education Committee as a step toward campus employment for all students. Its passing follows a previous vote in January 2024 by the UC Regents to delay progression of Regents Policy 4407, which aimed to develop a pathway for employment for undocumented students by November of 2023, till 2025.
AB 2586 was introduced to the California state legislature by Assembly Member David Alvarez (D-San Diego) on Feb. 14 as a result of advocacy from students and local groups, including the Undocumented Student-Led Network (USN), UCLA Dream Resource Center and UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP), through the Opportunity for All (O4A) coalition. Since the movement’s launch in fall 2022, organizers from USN mobilized supporters through social media for rallies, protests, vigils and other activities in support of employment opportunities for undocumented students on UC campuses.
The campaign for AB 2586 surrounded a legal interpretation of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), a federal law which prohibits employers from hiring individuals without proof of federal work authorization. According to a September 2022 memorandum presented by the CILP, the legal theory behind O4A claims that the IRCA outlines restrictions at the federal level, but does not indicate that state government entities, such as the UC, are bound to the same provisions.
“When Congress passed IRCA, Congress did not curtail states’ historic power to determine the employment qualifications of state employees,” the memorandum reads. “State entities can lawfully hire undocumented students irrespective of employment authorization status under federal law.”
A bill analysis from the July Senate Education Committee hearing briefed on identified concerns from stakeholders, as the UC submitted a letter to the Senate Education Committee regarding the bill’s viability. Staff cited concerns of safety regarding the legal theory, with the possibility that UC employers may be found in violation of federal law and prosecuted if they are involved in hiring an undocumented individual. The possibility of unlawful activity may expose the UC to penalties under the IRCA and may result in the loss of federal grants and contracts that require IRCA compliance, concerns referenced by UC president Michael Drake in a press release from a January 2024 Regents meeting.
Students may be put at risk due to the possibility of the policy “exposing our students and their families to the possibility of criminal prosecution, deportation, or anything that might force a change in their immigration status,” Drake stated in the release.
On California campuses, there were approximately 83,000 undocumented students in postsecondary institutions in 2021, according to a 2023 report from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and American Immigration Council. Of all college students in the United States, over 400,000 had undocumented status in 2021.
Supporters of AB 2586 champion the bill as an opportunity to set nationwide precedent for similar legislation and “combat … racist, anti-immigrant policies that threaten the livelihood of millions of undocumented individuals,” as stated in the bill analysis from the Senate Education Committee hearing.
In the same document, 19 organizations signed off in support of the bill.
Prior to the bill’s passing in the Senate Education Committee, legal considerations of the bill’s interpretation of IRCA were explored in policy discussions between the UC leadership and O4A campaign organizers, as seen in meeting minutes from a UC Regents meeting on Nov. 16, 2023.
On May 18, 2023, the UC Regents adopted Regents Policy 4407, which affirmed access to campus employment and created a working group to investigate policy towards this end, setting a deadline of Nov. 30 to develop a plan. In January 2024, the UC Regents opened a meeting to vote on Policy 4407, which USN launched a hunger strike.
At the January meeting, the Regents voted to suspend Policy 4407 for a year to seek further legal consultation due to identified concerns over the safety of students and staff — including risk of deportation or prosecution. In the press release from the meeting, Drake stated that the UC discussed with legal experts over a period of several months before the vote and affirmed alternate pathways to student employment while Policy 4407 receives review.
“As we take a pause on the legal pathway … we can expand the support we are currently providing to undocumented students in other ways, separate and distinct from the legal pathways that we have been exploring … including expanded experiential learning programs modeled after the California College Corps,” Drake stated.
USN announced their stance on the Regents decision for Policy 4407 in a statement.
“The Undocumented Student-Led Network firmly condemns the shameful and cowardly decision of the University of California to deny equal access and justice to their undocumented students,” the statement reads. The release stated that the working group provided no evidence of the promised plan and that the UC Regents’ justifications for rejecting the policy were “insulting and patronizing.”
Following the bill’s passing in the Senate Education Committee, supporters of the Opportunity For All Act continue their campaign ahead of AB 2586’s next hearing at the Senate Appropriations Committee in August 2024. As the bill passed in the California State Assembly in May 2024, it will need to be approved in the Senate and signed by Governor Newsom to become law.
“As an undocumented student deeply engaged in advocacy for our community, this legislation is much more than just a symbol of hope; it embodies the power of the power of our united efforts. It supports our ability to learn and to earn,” UCLA student Abraham Cruz Hernandez said in a post on UCLA Dream Center’s Instagram at the introduction of the legislation.
Beatrice Lee is an Assistant News Editor. She can be reached at beatrirl@uci.edu.
Edited by Annabelle Aguirre.