Graduate student workers represented by United Auto Workers Local 4811 are asking the University of California to create a legal aid fund to help them navigate immigration and visa issues, as uncertainty rises for international students in the United States.
The union’s request is part of contract negotiations with UC that began months ago and will cover teaching assistants, postdocs and researchers at UC campuses, including UC Berkeley. UAW Local 4811 represents 48,000 teaching assistants, postdocs and researchers across UC, with 15,000 of those members at UC Berkeley, and about 40% coming from other countries, according to union leaders.
Tanzil Chowdhury, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering who chairs the committee negotiating on behalf of teaching assistants and graduate student researchers, said UC’s approach to international students is central to its standing. “One of the things that has allowed the University of California to be a world leader in education and research is the fact that we welcome people from all over the world,” Chowdhury said.
Union members say they want the new contract to include a $750,000 legal aid fund. In addition to that fund, they are asking UC to keep paying researchers who are temporarily stranded outside the United States due to visa problems and to reimburse visa-related fees. Chowdhury said union members made international student-worker support a priority after witnessing “a lot of attacks on international researchers” in 2025.
UC spokesperson Heather Hansen said in an email that the university is approaching the negotiations in parallel with its view of student contributions. “The University values the contributions of its international student employees and continues to engage in good faith with UAW to bargain a successor contract,” Hansen said.
The negotiations come as international students face shifting policies. The story cited UC Berkeley students who panicked earlier this spring when the Trump administration abruptly canceled 23 visas for students and recent graduates of the university, before reinstating them weeks later. Nationwide, the story also described arrests and attempted deportations of pro-Palestinian international students who were legally present, a requirement that visa applicants make social media profiles public for review for “hostility” to the country, and a proposed limit on students’ visa terms to four years rather than the length of time needed to earn their degrees.
Rahoul Banerjee Ghosh, a graduate student researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said they had not felt at risk until this year. “I have lived in the U.S. for about four years now, and I’ve never felt at risk until this year,” Banerjee Ghosh said. Banerjee Ghosh, who is from India, said their research focuses on new materials for storing, transporting and generating energy and that they are scheduled to teach introductory chemistry to first-year UC Berkeley students this semester.
Banerjee Ghosh said international students are increasingly concerned about either losing their immigration status while in the United States or being unable to return after trips abroad. They said they have missed opportunities to travel to conferences in Europe with colleagues and described ongoing uncertainty about visa renewals. “Appointments are canceled and rules are changing every day,” Banerjee Ghosh said. “It’s an ever-present thought: Will I be able to continue my degree, continue the life I’ve built here?”
Hansen said international student workers can get referrals to legal services through their campus’s international student office, but some advocates said the offices themselves are under strain. Rayne Xue, a student government senator who advocates for international students, said the Berkeley International Office is spending more time tracking federal policy changes and is dealing with students who are “more frustrated than ever before.”
The story also said the Berkeley International Office’s budget is affected by an expiring funding stream. It said former Chancellor Carol Christ allocated about $700,000 per year in student service fees to the office over a five-year period, but that the money is set to expire after this school year. It added that UC already spends about $3 million per year on legal services for immigrant students through its Immigrant Legal Services Center, and that UC Berkeley has a separate program in partnership with the East Bay Community Law Center that serves primarily students who do not have permission to be in the country.
The union’s demand for visa-related support is unusual in higher education labor negotiations, but the story said it is not without precedent. It cited Johns Hopkins University’s 2024 contract for teaching assistants, which, according to the story, provides international employees up to two weeks’ paid time off if they need to leave the country to renew visas, and sets up an international employee fund that workers can apply for to help cover visa fees.
The story said the Institute for International Education reported a 17% decline in new international students enrolling at U.S. colleges between 2024 and 2025. It noted that official fall enrollment numbers for UC Berkeley have not yet been released, but said the Daily Cal reported that the number of international students submitting paperwork indicating they intended to register grew this year.
While negotiations continue, the story said the union and UC have already tentatively agreed to confidentiality limits on immigration-status disclosure and notification procedures. It said administrators will not disclose an employee’s immigration status without the employee’s permission unless they have received a warrant or subpoena, and that UC will notify the union if federal immigration agents are on campus.
This story was originally published by Berkeleyside and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.