AP
June 3, 2015
An
appeals court in New York on Wednesday announced its decision granting a
law license to an immigrant who was brought to the United States
illegally when he was a child.
Cesar
Vargas' mother brought him to the United States from Mexico when he was
5. He went to college and law school in New York City and passed the
bar. A court committee
recommended against his licensing but said the court should decide.
Vargas,
an activist who pushes for changes to immigration laws, is eligible to
work in the United States under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program
that gives work status and defers deportation action for some
immigrants.
In
its decision, the court said 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."
Messages
sent by email and social media to Vargas weren't answered. On his
Twitter feed, he said, "NY, my home, OFFICIALLY says I can be a licensed
lawyer!"
Jose
Perez, deputy general counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF who represented
Vargas, said the decision "pushes the door wide open for other states."
Perez called the decision
a "major advance in immigrants' rights."
New
York isn't the first state to grapple with the issue. In January 2014,
the California Supreme Court decided in favor of a license for Sergio
Garcia, who came to the
country from Mexico as a teenager. That ruling came after California
passed a law allowing immigrants in the country without legal
documentation to get a law license.
A
couple of months later, Florida's state Supreme Court ruled immigrants
in the country illegally can't be given law licenses. The judges said
state legislators hadn't
taken any legislative action at the time to allow it to happen. The
case revolved around a man, Jose Godinez-Samperio, who had come from
Mexico when he was 9.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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