Over 100 California colleges accused of discriminating against US-born students in new DOJ complaint
A civil rights group filed a federal discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday alleging that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and “undocumented” programs at California college campuses unlawfully exclude American-born students.
The complaint, filed by the Equal Protection Project (EPP) of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, and shared first with Fox News Digital, asks the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to launch a “formal investigation into the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems and 138 participating California public colleges and universities,” alleging that they are violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin — and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, EPP attorneys argue the programs provide benefits restricted to DACA recipients and “undocumented” students, effectively excluding American-born students. An attached document lists links to campus programs describing services such as “dedicated funding, staff, counseling, advocacy, and other forms of support.”
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Examples in the complaint include UC Berkeley’s Undocumented Student Program, which the university says has been in place since 2012 and “serves nearly 500 students annually” by providing “counseling, financial support, mental health support, legal support, and professional development opportunities” to undocumented students.
The EPP letter urges the DOJ to “immediately” open a formal investigation into what it calls “systemic discrimination against American-born students” at California’s public colleges and universities, and to take legal action to secure “appropriate remedial relief” if violations are found.
“The largest California state higher education systems have decided that American-born students are not worthy of equal treatment on par with DACA and ‘undocumented’ students,” EPP President and Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This systemic discrimination cries out for action by the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the civil rights laws and constitutional guarantee of equal protection.”
EPP is a nonprofit organization that “seeks to ensure equal protection under the law by opposing unlawful discrimination,” Jacobson said. The group says it has challenged more than 600 programs and scholarships it considers discriminatory at over 125 colleges and universities nationwide.
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“This is state-sponsored discrimination, so it cannot be fixed at the state level,” Jacobson continued. “If the federal government doesn’t act, the discrimination against American-born students throughout California higher education will continue unabated.”
The DACA program was created by former President Barack Obama to provide temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.
Jacobson emphasized that the complaint does not challenge the inclusion of “Dreamers” or “undocumented” students in these programs, but instead challenges the exclusion of American-born students, arguing the programs should be equally available to them.
“As a California native with degrees from a community college and from UC Berkeley, I am appalled at the discrimination against American-born students,” said Timothy R. Snowball, EPP senior attorney, in a statement to Fox News Digital. “If our own institutions of higher education discriminate against American-born students, how can we trust those institutions to educate the next generation of leaders?”
“I was a high school dropout, and know exactly what it is like to need extra support in becoming a successful college student,” he continued. “Tutoring programs, career counseling, and financial aid are an important part of this process. But such benefits should never be withheld from American-born students in favor of DACA or ‘undocumented’ students.”
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“I take civic pride in filing this complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice against both my community college alma mater, Grossmont College, and my university alma mater, UC Berkeley,” Snowball added. “I am upholding the principles of equality and equal protection those institutions once espoused but now betray.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
On CSU’s website, it says it supports undocumented students by providing “numerous resources, from grants, loans and scholarships to legal and campus support services, including dedicated Dream Centers with full-time staff.”
“We seek support for our Dreamers and DACA recipients—and those across the country—to honor their humanity, to remove inequitable and unfair barriers that stand between them and the fulfillment of their personal and professional dreams,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a 2024 statement defending these programs. “That’s what the CSU stands for—that’s what we do—and at a scale greater than any other university system in the world.”
The Equal Protection Project filed a similar complaint in May against the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Dreamer’s Pathway Scholarship Program, alleging it also violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Fox News’ Rachel Del Guidice contributed to this report.
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