The California State Assembly passed Assembly Bill 713 on Thursday, which will prohibit UC, CSU and California Community College campuses from disqualifying undocumented students from being hired for on-campus work.
The bill is the second of its kind. Gov. Gavin Newsom originally vetoed the first version, the Opportunity for All Act, in September 2024.
“How many times do we hear the rhetoric from the other side of the aisle saying, ‘all these people just want to come to this country and get handouts’? Well, last time I checked … they simply want to work. They want to work hard,” said the bill’s author, Assemblymember José Solache. “I think our humanity is obviously more important than any other title that we can bring to the table … I think we have to remember that we’re people first.”
Solache described the fear of his constituents and referenced the killing of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Carlos Alarcón, policy manager with the California Immigrant Policy Center, alongside the larger Opportunity for All coalition pushing for this legislation, worked in tandem with Solache in the drafting and advocacy of the bill.
“These are students that know the risks associated with a novel legal theory like this,” Alarcón said. “However, these are students, and like immigrant Californians as a whole, (they know) leaving your house is a risk, taking a job under the table is a risk, but these are things that we have to do in order to get by.”
According to Alarcón, the 2024 bill and AB 713 are relatively the same in language and construction, but with different legal backing.In November 2025, the California Supreme Court ruled that the decision to bar undocumented students from seeking employment on campus is illegal discrimination.
Alarcón said the California Immigrant Policy Center will defend this legislation with the understanding that the legal analysis has already stood the test of the court.
The UC Board of Regents voted unanimously to open campus employment for undocumented students in 2023, but quickly suspended the policy in January 2024. Legal experts on the case speculated the original abandonment of this policy was due to fear of retaliation from the Trump administration.
“The University does not yet have a position on AB 713. UC has been a leader in supporting undocumented students, who are vital members of the UC community and make significant contributions to our economy and society as scholars, researchers, and future leaders,” said UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez in an email.
ASUC Senator Sara Terán said she is currently working on an ASUC resolution to advocate that the university support the passage of the bill, however, Emily Zambrano, ASUC legislative and policy research director, pointed out that even if the bill was passed, the regents maintain some autonomy over its implementation and could potentially vote on the extent to which they will apply it.