UCLA Student Government Grants Large Stipends to Illegal Aliens

The Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has voted to allocate $23,000 to illegal aliens serving on the council, going against a University of California rule.

Each USAC member receives a weekly stipend for their work on student government. However, illegal aliens cannot receive stipends as wages because University of California cannot hire students without work authorization. Illegal immigrants can still receive substantial aid at UCLA through their Undocumented Students Program. The program offers several scholarships and helps students apply for state financial aid through the California DREAM Act and DREAM Loan Program.

The fund, which covers the yearly stipends of two council members, would pay USAC representatives who do not have work authorization in the United States through financial aid. If more than two illegal alien students are elected to USAC, future councils can allocate smaller payments for immediate compensation and add additional money to the fund.

Jeffry Umana, the internal representative of Improving Dreams, Equity and Access at UCLA, told the Daily Bruin that USAC is “not a space that was created for us and therefore it’s not a space that’s accessible.”

This is yet another attempt to reward those who break the law through loopholes in the system. The incentivization of breaking the law is a shameful practice that undermines those who have come to this country legally and places an unnecessary burden on American taxpayers who are forced to pay for the services illegal aliens consume. As of 2017, in-state post-secondary tuition for illegal aliens cost California taxpayers $486 million.

Work authorization is a benefit given to those who come to this country legally while protecting the American job market from undue competition. Unconstitutional programs like DACA and loopholes like the one taken by UCLA’s USAC erode the rule of law by providing work authorization to illegal aliens in the United States.

Universities and colleges need to uphold the law rather than teach their students how to break it and provide loopholes for them to do so.