UC system puts pause on allowing undocumented students to get jobs on campus

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV)- Juan Ruiz simply wants a better opportunity for all.

Ruiz is getting his doctorate degree at UC Santa Cruz, he migrated from Tijuana when was five years old.

Ruiz said undocumented students in his shoes should be able to work on campuses in the UC system.

"There's undocumented students but there is not opportunities for them to grow in their careers," Ruiz said.

During the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, medical experts emphasized the importance of having undocumented workers at schools in the UC system.

"Some of the most engaged medical students in the UC system, the ones that are capable of meeting that need are undocumented," Erica Lubliner who is a psychiatrist at UCLA

The UC proposal would challenge a 1986 federal law that would prohibit people without legal immigration status from working legally.

The UC Board of Regents seeks to create an exception for those who were brought into the U.S. as children and would have been allowed to work under the DACA program.

Ruiz did not qualify for that program and says there should be more opportunities for undocumented students of DACA.

"I think the universities need to implement scholarships and programs for students who do not have work permits," Ruiz said. "And, "Opportunity for All" does that it opens for undocumented students to work."

Ruiz aspires to be a professor once he finishes his doctorate degree.

The board says it remains committed to exploring their options and they must avoid exposing students plus their families from the possibility of criminal prosecution and deportation.