UC Board of Regents hears public comment on ICE, union concerns
Members of the UC Board of Regents listen to community members give public comment at its May meeting. Commenters urged the board to create immigration enforcement safeguards, address antisemitism and negotiate a contract with a union representing 40,000 workers. (Presley Liu/Daily Bruin)
Community members urged the UC Board of Regents at its May meeting to create immigration enforcement safeguards, address antisemitism and negotiate a contract with a union representing 40,000 workers.
The board heard public comment both days of its May meeting, held Tuesday and Wednesday at UCLA’s Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center.
Hoku Jeffrey, a member of By Any Means Necessary – a coalition originally founded at UC Berkeley that focuses on organizing a militant new civil and immigrant rights movement, according to its website – condemned an April 21 event at the UCLA School of Law featuring James Percival, the general counsel for the United States Department of Homeland Security.
[Related: Demonstrators protest UCLA event hosting DHS General Counsel James Percival]
“It is clear we cannot rely on the university administration to defend our sisters and brothers,” he said. “This discussion was not a matter of fair and equal discussion.”
Michelle Markosyan, the co-chair of UCLA’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, called on the regents to implement additional student protections against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Markosyan, an advocacy coordinator for UCLA’s Labor Studies Student Union, added that she believes UCLA should use BruinAlert – UCLA’s emergency notification system – to notify students if immigration enforcement officers enter campus.
Steve Lurie, UCLA’s associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, said in a Jan. 26 information session that UCLA will use an email notification system for SAFE Act notifications similar to BruinAlert.
[Related: UC agrees to send alerts on campus immigration enforcement activity]
Alexander Li, a fourth-year history student at UCLA, said he believes UCLA’s implementation of Senate Bill 98 – which requires California public schools, and requests the UC, to immediately notify community members of immigration enforcement operations on their campuses – has been insufficient, criticizing UCPD’s response to ICE action at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in June 2025. He cited other California schools’ immediate response to ICE presence – specifically a December incident at Santa Barbara Community College in which school administration allegedly dispatched campus safety officers within five minutes of an ICE sighting and notified students within one hour – as an example of the university’s shortcomings.
Jack Feng, the vice president of external affairs for UCLA’s Graduate Students Association, urged the board to provide all UC campuses with the necessary financial support for campus disability cultural centers. Feng, a doctoral student in epidemiology, added that he believes UCLA’s Lily Shaw Disability Cultural Center could serve as a model for future resource centers.
“Without sustained funding, the center cannot maintain a permanent space for student staff or continue providing essential and stabilized programming,” he said.
Several students demanded the UC divest from arms companies and chanted “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”
[Related: UCLA student government accused of antisemitism for condemning Israeli hostage talk]
Levi Layne, a third-year political science student, said he opposed the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s April 14 letter. The letter alleged that an event co-organized by Hillel at UCLA, the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and Students Supporting Israel at UCLA hosting Omer Shem Tov – who was held captive in Gaza by Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas – created a hostile campus climate for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.
Regent Jay Sures sent a letter to USAC on April 24 which expressed disapproval about the council’s April 14 letter, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Layne said he appreciated Sures’ response to USAC’s letter, as well as his support for the Jewish community at UCLA.
“When UCLA’s student government chose to condemn a Jewish communal event centered on a hostage survivor’s testimony to spread awareness, many Jewish students felt abandoned,” Layne said. “Your public statement made us feel seen. You reminded us that Jewish students should not have to defend our grief, our humanity or our right to gather as a community.”
Jasmine Prilutsky, a third-year psychology and law and society student at UC Riverside, called on the UC to create an antisemitism task force. She added that the Jewish student community is open to having conversations about their experience on campus with the regents.
Michael Avant, the president of the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – a union representing about 40,000 patient care, service and craft workers – said he believes the University has failed to bargain a fair contract for workers.
AFSCME Local 3299 – which has been in negotiations with the UC since January 2024 – plans to start an ongoing strike May 14 if it does not reach a contract with the University. The union has struck five times since negotiations began, alleging that the University has failed to bargain in good faith.
“I was homeless while working here, sleeping in tents, sleeping at bus stops, in homeless shelters,” said Deshundre Richee, a member of AFSCME 3299. “I am one emergency away from being back on the streets, and yet you tell us that there’s no money, no solution, no real effort to address the housing crisis or provide livable wages.”
Lissette Gallardo, a UCLA Health perinatal technician, said short staffing and cuts to overtime pay has impacted her wellbeing.
“As a full-time employee, I must leave home three hours before my shift begins, and it’s another two hours to drive back at night, leaving me little to no time to be a parent,” Gallardo said. “Where’s the money going? Because it’s not going to the workers who sacrifice their health, their families and their lives to keep this place running.”
About 25 AFSCME Local 3299 members exited the building chanting “Fair contract now” at about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.
About 60 members of the California Nurses Association, Committee of Interns and Residents and the University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America 9119 – which represents healthcare, research and technical professionals – also gathered outside of the Luskin Conference Center on Wednesday morning to protest overcrowding at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
Around 20 of the demonstrators marched inside the building to give public comment after the protest.
[Related: Protesting doctors, nurses allege dangerous overcrowding at UCLA hospital]
Dianne Sposito, a nurse in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center’s emergency department, alleged that the hospital has repeatedly failed to address staff concerns.
B. Judy Choe, a physician at UCLA Health’s emergency department, added that the regents should have conversations with medical professionals to create solutions that address overcrowding issues and low staff morale.
“You (the regents) are not being asked to run the hospital,” Sposito said. “You’re being asked to require management to meet minimum safety standards.”
