Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2014
Florida's top court on Thursday denied a law license to an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally, ruling that federal law prohibits him from practicing in the state.
The Florida Supreme Court said Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio, whose family moved to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 9 years old, couldn't obtain his license to practice law unless the Florida legislature passed a law permitting it. The justices cited a federal statute that bans states from providing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally with public benefits, absent a state law to the contrary.
Earlier this year, California's high court granted a law license to man who is living in the U.S. illegally, but only after California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a law that specifically allowed him and other people with his immigration status to be admitted as attorneys.
Mr. Godinez-Samperio, 27 years old, was the valedictorian of his Florida high school, graduated from Florida State University College of Law and passed the state bar exam. He qualified for the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and is now authorized to work in the U.S.
Mr. Godinez-Samperio and his lawyer had argued that the state could grant him a license without legislation and that his participation in the deferred-action program further paved the way for his admission as an attorney.
The Florida Supreme Court, however, in its unsigned opinion Thursday, said the administration's policies "do not provide this Court with legal authority to disregard the laws currently enacted by Congress and admit unauthorized immigrants into Florida Bar membership."
Justice Jorge Labarga, whose family emigrated from Cuba to the U.S. in 1963, said in a separate opinion that he "reluctantly" concurred with the decision to deny Mr. Godinez-Samperio his license and urged the Florida legislature to pass a law like California's, allowing qualified immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to practice law.
Mr. Godinez-Samperio, who works as a paralegal at a legal-aid group, Gulfcoast Legal Services, said in an interview that he would lobby the Florida legislature to pass such a law. He said he was considering taking the bar exam in California. If he passed, Mr. Godinez-Samperio said he could practice immigration law outside the state.
"I'm not giving up on Florida," he said.
A spokesman for Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, said the ruling magnifies "the heart-wrenching impact" of Congress's indecision on immigration reform. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which had argued that Mr. Godinez-Samperio wasn't entitled to a law license, declined to comment.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment