Court lets stand ruling that says UC's ban on hiring students without legal status is discriminatory

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The California Supreme Court has let stand a lower-court ruling that the University of California's policy barring students without legal status in the US from campus jobs is discriminatory and must be reconsidered.

Officials with the university system say the decision puts them in a precarious position as they negotiate with the Trump administration after the withdrawal of federal research funds.

A 2024 lawsuit argued that UC's ban defied state law. In August, the First District Court of Appeals ruled that UC had not provided sufficient evidence to justify its “discriminatory policy” of not hiring students who are in the country without legal permission.

That ruling stopped short of overturning the hiring protocol, but the judges ordered UC to reconsider it using proper legal criteria. Instead, UC took the case to the state's high court, which last week declined to hear the challenge.

Rachel Zaentz, a UC spokesperson, said in a statement Tuesday that the university system is “assessing its options” and that the court's decision not to review the case “creates serious legal risks for the University and all other state employers in California.”

Under Trump, UC has contended with federal grant suspensions and a White House demand that it pay a $1 billion fine over allegations including antisemitism and the illegal use of race in admission at the Los Angeles campus.

A plaintiff in the case, former UC lecturer Iliana Perez, urged the university system to take the latest court decision as an opportunity to revise its hiring policy.

“The California Supreme Court’s decision not only reaffirms that discriminating against undocumented immigrants from accessing on-campus employment cannot continue to be tolerated,” Perez said in a statement Monday to the Los Angeles Times. “But it also gives UC the clarity to finally unlock life-changing opportunities for the thousands of immigrant students who contribute to its campuses, and to the state’s economy and workforce.”

The lawsuit said that without the ability to work, students without legal status struggle to raise the money needed to afford the full cost of their education, including housing. While those students are eligible for state grants and tuition waivers, they are barred from accessing federal grants and loans. That pushes many students to find jobs under the table or in unsafe conditions, advocates have said.

UC argued that hiring students without legal status could expose campus employers to civil or criminal litigation and put at risk the billions of dollars in federal contracts the system receives.