UC Admits Record Number of Hispanics as CA Latino Caucus Pushes to Reinstitute Affirmative Action

California’s Latino Legislative Caucus will continue its push to reinstitute affirmative action at the state’s universities even though the University of California admitted a record number of Hispanics this year and, for the first time, more Hispanics than whites.

Hispanics make up a record “28.8% of the 61,120 Californians admitted for this fall’s freshman class at the UC system’s nine undergraduate campuses, up from 27.6% last year and topping the 26.8% share of whites,” according to preliminary data.

That will not stop state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), the Chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, from trying to get an initiative on the ballot by 2016 that will seek to repeal Proposition 209, which bans affirmative action. It is one of the Latino Legislative Caucus’s top legislative priorities, according to a report in the Sacramento Bee.

As Breitbart California has reported, after California state senators “passed a measure (SCA 5) that, if approved by voters, would overturn Proposition 209,” the author of the bill pulled it after intense backlash. Californians of Asian descent in particular mobilized against the bill. 

Peter Kuo, a candidate for the state Senate, championed equality of opportunity instead of equality of results by mobilizing groups against the reinstitution of race-based affirmative action and preferences. 

But Lara has been unwavering in his support for race-based preferences. 

“Let there not be any doubt,” Lara told the Los Angeles Times. “The Black caucus and Latino caucus strongly support SCA 5, and we are committed to put something on the ballot in 2016.”

As noted in the Wall Street Journal, California Department of Finance figures show that “among 15- to 19-year-olds in California, 49.4% are Hispanic, 29.2% are white, 10.9% are Asian and 6% are black.”