University of California students who are undocumented are pushing U.C. Regents to approve a proposal that would allow students who are undocumented and don’t qualify for a work permit to be hired on campus.
For many college students, having a job on campus is not only convenient, it helps them graduate.
“Not having a work permit has been tough,” said Abraham Cruz Hernandez, a UCLA undergraduate student majoring in labor and workplace studies.
Cruz Hernandez arrived in the United States when he was seven years old. He’s undocumented and is not part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects people with similar status from deportation and authorizes them to work in the country.
“Not being able to work… is another reason why I wasn’t able to finish in four years,” he said. He’s in his fifth year at UCLA and the tuition charges and other non-academic costs keep piling up. Not being able to work has severely limited opportunities for him to work with professors on research projects that pay those working on them.
Cruz Hernandez and other students and scholars are part of the Undocumented Student-Led Network. The organization held on-campus and online events this week hoping to reach the U.C. Regents’ ears as the policymaking body prepares for their regular meeting later this month. The student activists hope the increased visibility of their cause will put pressure on the Regents to adopt a change to the way the public university system hires people on its 10 campuses.
“If you want undocumented students also to be able to graduate without a mountain of debt, they obviously have to be able to work,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, a UCLA law professor who co-directs the school’s Center for Immigration Law and…
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