Unclear

From the Sacramento Bee: California would become the first state in the nation to employ undocumented college students without legal work permits, pending a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The landmark legislation, Assembly Bill 2586, passed the Legislature in a final 41-7 Assembly vote on Monday. The governor, who has not stated a position on the bill, has until the end of September to sign or veto it. ...If signed, AB 2586 would direct the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems to employ students who, due to their legal status, often struggle to secure paid on-campus jobs, internships and research opportunities. These institutions would have to begin hiring students by January 2025.

“California is leading on an issue that, unfortunately, the rest of the country is failing,” Assemblyman David Alvarez, D-San Diego, said on Monday following the bill’s passing. Alvarez introduced the bill earlier this year after University of California leaders scrapped a plan to hire these undocumented students. UC leaders, many of whom are Newsom appointees, had cited legal concerns including loss of federal funding and the exposure of undocumented students and their families to prosecution and deportation. A legal analysis developed last year by UCLA scholars counters that argument, saying there is no federal law prohibiting the UC from hiring undocumented students.

Under Alavrez’s bill, the University of California Board of Regents would still need to pass a resolution allowing the hires before moving forward with any action. In February, the San Diego lawmaker said that he expected the resolution to be passed... 

Full story at https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article291514870.html.

Note: The actual bill says its "provisions would apply to the University of California, unless it is found inapplicable to the University of California and then only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make them applicable." Good luck untangling that sentence! But it seems to leave the decision to the Regents - where it has been all along - and the Regents previously have endorsed the view that hiring undocumented students would put UC funding from the federal government in jeopardy. Nonetheless, the bill goes on to direct that "the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges shall treat the prohibition on hiring undocumented noncitizens in subdivision (a) of Section 1324a Section 1324a(a) of Title 8 of the United States Code as inapplicable because that provision does not apply to any branch of state government." Whether the legislature's declaration/interpretation changes anything is at best unclear. The outcome of the upcoming presidential election is unclear so it is unknown who will be president when the bill would come into force. Nor is it clear that the governor - who is an ex officio Regent - will sign the bill.

The bill is at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2586.