New York Court Rules for Immigrant in Fight to Become Lawyer

New York Times

By Liz Robbins

June 4, 2015

New York Court Rules for Immigrant in Fight to Become Lawyer 

His legal fight to become a lawyer lasted three years. This week, Cesar Vargas, a Mexican-born 31-year-old New Yorker, became the first immigrant in the state without legal status to be approved to work as a lawyer.

An appellate panel of the State Supreme Court approved his application to the bar on Wednesday, overturning a 2013 decision by a committee that had denied his application based on his immigration status but had asked the court to rule.

In its decision, the state judiciary did what the Legislature in Albany has not been able to do: establish at least a modicum of immigration policy change.

The decision could be a test case, not only for the city, but also for the country, affecting hundreds of would-be lawyers and empowering immigrants who arrived as children to the United States and have been granted a reprieve from deportation.

“This wasn’t just about one person; this was about countless other students across New York State and across the country,” Mr. Vargas said. “This is a precedent I wanted to make. I think this is really great momentum that is going to extend to other policies.”

Mr. Vargas, who has been granted the deferred action allowing him to work, is the third unauthorized immigrant lawyer to become eligible to practice law after court decisions in California and Florida in 2014.

But in those states, the legislatures have also enacted laws paving the way for the licensing of unauthorized immigrants.

In Albany, a bill to allow unauthorized immigrants to practice law died last year.

The State Supreme Court’s Second Judicial Department of the Appellate Division wrote in its opinion that it found “no legal impediment or rational basis for withholding the privilege of practicing law in the state of New York from undocumented immigrants who have been granted DACA relief,” the five-member panel said in its opinion, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

“We find that Mr. Vargas’s undocumented immigration status, in and of itself, does not reflect adversely upon his general fitness to practice law,” the opinion said, adding, “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 5 at the hand of his mother.”

The first thing Mr. Vargas did upon receiving the news on Wednesday was call his 70-year-old mother, Teresa Galindo, on Staten Island. She was the one who had brought her son from Puebla, Mexico, for a better life.

“I told her, ‘Hey, we did it,’ ” Mr. Vargas said, recalling the joyful conversation. “Her son was going to be a licensed lawyer very soon.”

But there was a bit of doubt, even amid the celebration. Mr. Vargas was in court in Des Moines, where he was defending himself against charges of trespassing after he was arrested when he protested speeches by several elected officials, including Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. The event, Mr. Vargas said, was “quasi-public.”

Mr. Vargas said he had no regrets about attending the conference and was confident it would not jeopardize his bar application. He said in an interview on Wednesday night that the appellate division was well aware of what happened: He had already submitted updates on the arrest and a pending court appearance.

“In the end, if you are really going to be an advocate, you can’t hide and you can’t just wait in the shadows,” he said.

After graduating from City University of New York Law School, Mr. Vargas passed the New York State bar in 2011. He has interned with a State Supreme Court judge, at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and with a congressman. He first applied to the bar in 2012.

Since then, unable to practice law, he has turned to advocacy, becoming a national leader in the immigration reform movement. Although Mr. Vargas’s application to the bar was approved, like any lawyer, he still needs final approval from the state bar’s Committee on Character and Fitness, and to record 50 hours of pro bono work.

“This decision now provides a road map for all the other states,” said Jose Luis Perez, deputy general counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which represented Mr. Vargas.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com