LOS ANGELES — They’ve attended college in the USA, spent their childhoods in U.S. neighborhoods and grown up as People in each manner however one — delivered to the nation by their undocumented mother and father as kids, they don’t have any authorized authority to reside in the USA.

The political and authorized turmoil over the federal program that since 2012 has shielded lots of them from deportation, the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program, has left 1000’s of the so-called Dreamers — immigrants whose plight has received sympathy at instances from Democrats and Republicans alike — in authorized limbo. Federal legislation makes it unlawful to rent undocumented immigrants, and, underneath the legislation, many of those younger immigrants will graduate from school to a lifetime of under-the-table jobs as nannies and development staff.

Now, a coalition of undocumented scholar leaders and a number of the nation’s prime authorized students is proposing that California, a state that has served as an incubator for progressive insurance policies on immigration, start using undocumented college students on the 10 College of California campuses.

The proposal, which nearly definitely would face vital political and authorized challenges, requires the state to defy present interpretations of a 1986 federal immigration legislation that prohibits U.S. employers from hiring undocumented immigrants. However a brand new authorized evaluation drafted on the College of California, Los Angeles, and reviewed in a number of the nation’s prime legislation faculties argues that the legislation doesn’t apply to states.

Backed by Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the College of California, Berkeley, Faculty of Regulation; Adam B. Cox of New York College Regulation Faculty; and constitutional and immigration students at Cornell, Stanford and Yale, amongst different universities, the idea that these within the nation unlawfully may very well be employed for state jobs may have implications for California, the place the U.C. system is the third-largest employer, and for the broader inhabitants of 11 million undocumented individuals who reside in the USA.

Undocumented scholar leaders from U.C.L.A. will current a letter to the president of the College of California, Michael V. Drake, on Wednesday, formally proposing that the college system start hiring undocumented college students for a variety of jobs, together with as analysis and educating assistants and paid interns.

“On the College of California, college students who can not entry DACA are being systematically denied alternatives afforded to their classmates, together with employment alternatives that might improve the analysis, schooling and public service mission of the college,” the letter mentioned.

California, which has the biggest inhabitants of undocumented immigrants within the nation, has a historical past of resisting federal immigration controls, issuing drivers licenses to all state residents no matter immigration standing and providing in-state school tuition to undocumented college students. It just lately grew to become the primary state to supply state-funded well being care to all low-income folks. A number of cities, together with Los Angeles and San Francisco, have declared themselves as “sanctuary cities” that won’t cooperate with federal efforts to deport undocumented folks merely due to their immigration standing.

Hiring undocumented college students would go a step additional, almost definitely inviting authorized challenges from immigration opponents and opening the door to potential conflicts with the federal authorities. President Biden, although, had pledged to supply everlasting DACA protections and the authorized permission to work that this system supplies to extra undocumented younger folks.

Congressional haggling over laws to supply an answer for the group has gone nowhere for 20 years, and makes an attempt by the Biden administration to shore up the DACA program have been stymied within the courts. Beneath current court docket rulings, these already enrolled in DACA are allowed to retain its protections however no new enrollments are allowed, making a rising class of younger immigrants, many now of school age, who wouldn’t have the identical rights because the ageing Dreamers.

The category of younger immigrants who grew up in the USA however will not be eligible for DACA is increasing on the charge of 100,000 folks every year. California alone is house to greater than 44,000 undocumented school college students who can not apply. One other 27,000 are graduating from excessive faculties within the state every year.

Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Middle for Immigration Regulation and Coverage at U.C.L.A., mentioned he started listening to final 12 months from school a couple of worsening drawback with the rise within the variety of undocumented college students with out DACA protections — college students who couldn’t be paid to work as analysis assistants or in different campus jobs.

Mr. Arulanantham’s crew had already concluded that the federal legislation in opposition to hiring undocumented folks didn’t bind states, they usually started holding listening classes with students throughout the nation to vet their reasoning.

Twenty-six consultants agreed, concluding in a authorized evaluation being launched with the scholars’ letter on Wednesday that when Congress handed the Immigration Reform and Management Act in 1986, it didn’t curtail the states’ historic energy to find out whom they may make use of. The authorized students additionally famous that the Supreme Court docket has repeatedly discovered that Congress has no energy to manage state governments in sure areas, resembling employment, absent “clear language” to permit it.

“This proposal has been hiding in plain sight,” Mr. Arulanantham mentioned. “For practically 40 years, state entities thought they had been sure by the federal prohibition in opposition to hiring undocumented college students when, actually, they weren’t.”

The U.C.L.A. authorized group shortly discovered assist from inside the college group.

“Among the most interesting college students in my profession have been undocumented college students. And but I can’t rent them as researchers or educating assistants. This isn’t solely detrimental to their schooling and profession, however it negatively impacts the college as an entire,” mentioned Kent Wong, director of the U.C.L.A. Labor Middle, a analysis division centered on organized labor and labor rights.

Amongst them is Karely Amaya, 22, a graduate scholar in public coverage who’s undocumented and among the many organizers of the marketing campaign.

“Now we have a window of alternative right here. All of those outstanding authorized students are backing us up,” mentioned Ms. Amaya, who was born in Mexico and has been in the USA since she was 2.

“I’ve a job provide on the desk. If we win, I can get employed and have my tuition coated,” she mentioned in an interview. “Within the meantime, I’m barely surviving. I’m patching collectively assets.”

Providing college students the power to work for his or her universities wouldn’t present safety from deportation or change their authorized immigration standing. And it’s too early to inform how the proposal might be obtained by the U.C. president, particular person college chancellors and the Board of Regents, a governor-appointed physique that oversees the system.

However Mr. Arulanantham mentioned that the hope was that it will be embraced by all the general public universities in California and, finally, in different states.

The coed organizers mentioned they deliberate to mobilize undocumented college students on all 10 U.C. campuses to attend conferences of the Board of Regents and push the difficulty with the U.C. president’s employees. They mentioned the marketing campaign would additionally goal native and state elected officers who may exert stress on the U.C. management.

Given the persistent gridlock in Congress over DACA and different immigration laws, undocumented scholar leaders mentioned that in search of options on the state stage was their solely viable technique.

“What are the adjustments we are able to make whereas we proceed to battle for a everlasting answer?” mentioned Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, 20, an undocumented scholar chief who was delivered to the USA from El Salvador on the age of two.

After he gained admission to Harvard and Yale, along with U.C.L.A., he selected the California college as a result of he felt it will provide extra assist for undocumented college students. However his academic expertise could be diminished, he mentioned, with out the power to legally work.

“Since we all know DACA is headed to an finish, Congress isn’t appearing and Biden received’t take any significant motion on immigration, this marketing campaign got here on the proper second for us,” he mentioned.