Wall Street Journal
By Jacob Gershman
June 4, 2015
A
New York appeals court has ruled that a Mexican-born undocumented
immigrant who came to the United States as a child is eligible to
practice law in the state.
Federal
law prohibits undocumented immigrants to become practicing lawyers
unless there’s a state law that specifically allows it. The ruling this
week in New York marks
the first time that a state court has said it’s not bound by that
federal statute, according to the attorney for 31-year-old Cesar Vargas.
“This
is the first time we’re aware of that a court has indicated that
matters regarding admission to the bar are specifically delegated to the
judiciary and therefore
state legislation isn’t required to otherwise comply with federal law,”
Mr. Vargas’s attorney, Juan Cartagena, told Law Blog on Thursday.
Reports Reuters:
The
Appellate Division, Second Department, in Brooklyn said on Wednesday
that immigration activist Cesar Vargas, 31, had met all of the
qualifications necessary to win
a law license, including showing the required character and fitness …
Vargas
was brought to the United States from Mexico by his mother when he was
5, court documents said. He qualified for a renewable two-year amnesty
through a government
program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, aimed at people who
came into the country illegally as children and were 30 or younger in
2012.
The court’s decision applies only to people enrolled in that program.
Vargas,
who advocates for reforms to immigration laws, passed the state bar
exam after attending New York City public schools, St. Francis College
in Brooklyn and CUNY
Law School, the court said.
The
court’s decision went against the position taken by the Obama
administration, which argued in a brief submitted by the Department of
Justice that Mr. Vargas is forbidden
from obtaining a license by a law Congress passed in 1996, the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
The New York appellate panel disagreed:
[W]e
hold, in light of this state’s allocation of authority to the judiciary
to regulate the granting of professional licenses to practice law (see
Judiciary Law § 53[1]),
that the judiciary may exercise its authority as the state sovereign to
opt out of the restrictions imposed by section 1621(a) to the limited
extent that those restrictions apply to the admission of attorneys to
the practice of law in the State of New York…
We
find that Mr. Vargas’ undocumented immigration status, in and of
itself, does not reflect adversely upon his general fitness to practice
law. Mr. Vargas did not enter
the United States in violation of the immigration laws of his own
volition, but rather, came to the United States at the age of five at
the hand of his mother. When considering the weight to be accorded to
his unlawful entry, we are guided by the United States
Supreme Court’s long-standing recognition that ” [v]isiting . . .
condemnation on the head of an infant is illogical and unjust.’”
New York’s attorney general also supported giving Mr. Vargas a license.
Last
year California’s highest court granted a law license to a Mexican
immigrant who was living in the country illegally but had graduated from
law school and passed
the California bar. But that ruling came after Gov. Jerry Brown signed
into law a measure that specifically allows undocumented immigrants to
be admitted as attorneys. The attorney, Sergio Garcia, was granted
permanent residency on Thursday.
Last
year, Florida’s top court took the opposite view, denying a law license
to an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally.The Mexican national was
later admitted to the
Florida bar after state lawmakers passed a law allowing certain illegal
immigrants to practice law in Florida.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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