What are the legal issues and challenges for California State Universities offering protection for DREAMers

The complexity of the United States intergovernmental relations at both the federal, state and local levels can have a detrimental effect on how policies are executed. Furthermore, this complexity has created many legal challenges and issues for the state of California, in particular, the California State Universities (CSU’s) looking to protect their undocumented students also known as DREAMers. The lack of a federal Dream Act has created a federal void and this has prompted the state of California to implement their own California Dream Act through various state policies. In addition, CSU’s have garnered support from the state to implement their own administrative policies to also help fill that void. There are some students who are fearful of filing an application for the California Dream Act as they fear doing so could potentially disclose their personal data and immigration status to federal immigration authorities. In order to address this fear and protect DREAMers, CSU’s have implemented various administrative policies. An analysis of the CSU administrative policies will be conducted to determine how effectively they are filling the federal void. In addition, I will share some federal and state of California legislative historical background outlining various laws and policies that have passed both in favor and against DREAMers, outlining policies which could be potentially expanded. Keywords: DREAMer, DREAM ACT, DACA, FERPA, ICE, IIRIRA & PRWORA