This post was updated Oct. 3 at 10:47 p.m.

A UCLA alumnus and lecturer filed a lawsuit against the UC on Tuesday, alleging the University discriminated against its undocumented students.

The lawsuit, filed in the California Court of Appeals, requests an order for the UC to change its policy barring undocumented students from accessing on-campus employment and paid educational opportunities. On Sept. 22, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed undocumented students to access these opportunities across California public campuses, citing a federal law that bans United States employers from hiring people who lack legal immigration status.

“As an undocumented undergraduate student at the University of California, I experienced firsthand the pain and difficulty of being denied the right to on-campus employment at my university,” said Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, a petitioner in the lawsuit, in a press release. “At the crux of this case are thousands of undocumented students and our families who simply want the freedom to study, work, and fully contribute to our universities.”

Newsom’s veto was a blow to the Opportunity for All movement, which began at UCLA in October 2022 and supports the novel legal theory that the federal law banning employers from hiring undocumented immigrants does not apply to state entities, including the UC. In his veto message, Newsom stated that a judge should decide upon the bill’s legality before California would adopt the law.

During a Tuesday press conference, Ahilan Arulanantham, a UCLA professor and immigration law scholar, said the lawsuit served as a direct response to the governor’s “invitation” to bring the law to a court.

The UC Board of Regents also rejected a plan in January to allow undocumented students to hold jobs on campus and voted to table the measure for a year, despite previously indicating support for it. During the January meeting, UC President Michael Drake cited concerns that violating the federal statute could put undocumented students at risk of deportation or civil penalties and put the University’s grants and federal contracts at risk.

“We have concluded that the proposed legal pathway is not viable at the time and, in fact, carries significant risk for the institution and for those we serve,” Drake said in the meeting. “Nevertheless, we remain committed to continuing to explore our options. As new information becomes available, we will evaluate that information, and if appropriate, move ahead.”

In the lawsuit, lawyers for plaintiffs requested that the judge avoid trial litigation and follow an expedited schedule, citing the challenged policy’s current harm to undocumented students. Attorneys stated in the lawsuit that the judge should issue a writ ordering the UC Board of Regents to abandon its policy by Nov. 30, the UC application deadline, so prospective undocumented students can consider this information when applying.

“Only this Court’s intervention can prevent their (undocumented students’) dreams from being irretrievably derailed,” the lawsuit says. “This Court should set an expedited briefing schedule and thereafter issue a writ of mandate directing the Regents to abandon its unsound and unlawful policy.”

In the lawsuit, attorneys from Altshuler Berzon LLP, Organized Power in Numbers and the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy drew on the legal theory presented by the Opportunity for All movement, claiming that the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act does not apply to state government employers.

“The UC has the legal authority to allow all students, regardless of their immigration status, to access educational employment opportunities on campus,” a press release announcing the lawsuit said. “UC’s failure to do so is unlawful.”

UC Office of the President did not respond in time to a request for comment.