• The illegal immigrant population leveled off nationwide from 2009 to 2012 and decreased in California, according to new Pew Research Center estimates. California is one of 14 states—including Western states Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado—where populations fell, while populations increased in seven states. According to Pew’s website, the number of “unauthorized immigrants” in the U.S. peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million, and was virtually unchanged from 2009 to 2012, staying around 11.2 million. California saw 2.5 million of those immigrants in 2009 and 2.4 million in 2012. “The losses in 13 of [the 14 states] were due to drops in the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico,” according to the website. “In six of the seven states where populations of unauthorized immigrants grew … it was because the number of non-Mexicans increased; the number of Mexicans declined or did not change.” Those “unauthorized immigrants” accounted for 3.5 percent of the U.S. population of nearly 316 million in 2012. And an estimated 8.1 million of those immigrants were working or looking for work in 2012, making up 5.1 percent of the nation’s work force.
• The University of California regents voted 14-7 on Nov. 20 to approve tuition increases of as much as 5 percent for each of the next five years. Regents did so through the “din of students chanting their protest,” according to the L.A. Times. The vote sets up months of negotiations and political posturing before a final tuition-percentage increase is chosen, the Times reported, adding that UC officials said that the hike could be eliminated or moderated if state funding of the UC system increases enough. Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, student regent Sadia Saifuddin, and two regents appointed by Brown earlier in the week voted against the proposed increase. Under the plan, tuition—without room and board or the cost of books—could be as high as $15,564 by the 2019-2020 school year if state funding doesn’t rise more than anticipated, the Times reported. UC President Janet Napolitano said the increases are needed to help with employee pay and pensions, hire more faculty, and raise the number of California undergraduates by 5,000 over five years. “In many respects, this meeting is the end of the beginning of a process,” Napolitano told the Times after the vote. The governor’s office told the Times that the next steps in the governor’s UC funding plans will be outlined in Brown’s January proposal for the 2015-2016 state budget.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2014.