By: Amber Frias | NBC San Diego | OCT. 27, 2022 | Photo by Scott Henrichsen
Thousands of undocumented UC students have lived most of their lives in the U.S., attended school in this country, and grown up as Americans in every way possible, yet due to their legal status, they’re unable to legally find work.
“There are millions like me, that go through the university system, study and learn all these things,” said Karely Amaya, UCLA graduate student in public policy. “And then when we graduate, we're like, `OK, well, what are we going to do with this?'”
Amaya was born in Mexico. When she was just 2 years old her entire family fled the violence in their hometown and emigrated to Escondido.
“My family wanted to give us a better opportunity in the United States,” said Amaya.
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. a which granted work permits and protections from deportation to certain young people who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Unfortunately, Amaya did not qualify.
“DACA has very crazy-limited restrictions," said Amaya.
Then five years ago, the Trump administration ended the program and a court ruling limited the government to only granting DACA renewals; leaving thousands of students in jeopardy.
“DACA was never a solution for anyone, really. It was a band-aid,” said Amaya.
Now, along with some of the nation’s top legal scholars, she is pushing the University of California system to hire undocumented students.
“The proposal is to have the UC [system] open educational employment opportunities to undocumented students, both undergraduate and graduate,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Immigration Law and Policy Center at UCLA.
Arulanantham is one of the head legal professionals on Amaya’s team. He says he and his colleagues found a loophole in the 1986 law that prohibits the hiring of immigrants without legal status.
“The law says that it applies to persons and other entities, and then it specifies that the federal government is one of those entities but it does not say that it applies to states,” said Arulanantham. “And there's a long history of Supreme Court cases requiring Congress, when it wants to regulate state governments, to do so explicitly.”
The group formally proposed their idea to the president of the University of California.
They haven't yet received a response but the university did send NBC 7 the following statement:
"The University of California has long been committed to supporting our undocumented students. These are complex issues that deserve careful and thoughtful review. We have received the proposal and are in the process of determining the appropriate next steps for its consideration."
“I do believe that if they can help undocumented students they will,” said Arulanantham. “I think the barrier thus far, it's just that it is a novel idea."
Meanwhile, Amaya says her group has received support from hundreds of students across the UC system.
“Right now we have signatures from UCI and UCR," said Amaya. "All the UC campuses have signed on already.”
She says they'll continue to fight for equal opportunities.
