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15/01/2014 | Immigration - Yearning for briefs and fees

The Economist Staff

SERGIO GARCÍA was just ten years old when he decided to become a lawyer. On a visit to the mayor’s office in the Mexican town of Panindicuaro, he met the relatives of some inmates in the jail next door, who told him that prisoners were freed only if they paid a bribe. “I thought, ‘This isn’t right,’” he says. “'People should get the justice they deserve, not the justice they can afford. I’m going to defend these people one day’.”

 

It would be 26 years before Mr García would achieve his dream. He entered the United States illegally in 1994, when his father, against his wishes, ordered him to move and made him cross the border hidden in a pickup truck. Mr García learned English and received full scholarship offers from Stanford and Berkeley. However, the universities rescinded the financial aid after learning his status. Instead, he attended a community college while supporting himself as a farm labourer, and then paid for law school on credit cards until they maxed out.

Mr García says he did not expect his lack of a visa to prevent him from practicing as a lawyer. The California State Bar, which grants law licences, did not ask applicants about their citizenship. Moreover, America had approved his request for permanent residency back in 1995, and put him on a waiting list. He expected to receive a green card before too long.

But the visa never arrived. And in 2008—just six months before he applied to become a lawyer— the state bar added an immigration question to its form. He listed his status as “pending”. That brought his file under scrutiny from the state Supreme Court. Federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving benefits from states and localities, including professional licences, in the absence of a state law specifically authorising their inclusion.

Mr García’s case looked bleak. But he began lobbying the California state legislature, which earlier in 2013 had passed a law allowing the undocumented to obtain driving licences. It took just a month for the governor to sign a new law allowing them to work as lawyers as well. The policy took effect on January 1st, and Mr García was admitted the next day.

Any law firm hoping to hire the 36-year-old Mr García will be disappointed. He is not eligible for Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, which grants temporary work permits and a reprieve from deportation to illegal immigrants under 31 who were brought to America as children. As a result, until the long backlog of visa requests for Mexicans clears, he cannot be employed in America. However, he can be self-employed, and plans to work as an independent personal-injury lawyer in civil court. “There’s no law against someone being an entrepreneur and job creator,” he says.

The case is expected to set a nationwide precedent, paving the way for people lacking legal status to play an open part in the upper echelons of American society. Similar cases are pending in New York and Florida. More broadly, California’s rapid response to Mr García’s situation reinforces the trend that, while Washington, DC is gridlocked, socially liberal states are making their own rules on issues like gay marriage and drugs. Unlike America’s immigration system, the laboratories of democracy are working pretty well.

The Economist (Reino Unido)

 



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17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
11/01/2009|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
23/11/2008|
23/11/2008|
16/11/2008|
16/11/2008|
04/11/2008|
04/11/2008|
03/11/2008|
03/11/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
06/09/2008|
06/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
22/08/2008|
22/08/2008|
17/08/2008|
17/08/2008|
16/08/2008|
16/08/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
19/07/2008|
19/07/2008|
24/05/2008|
24/05/2008|
03/05/2008|
03/05/2008|
29/04/2008|
11/02/2008|
05/01/2008|
09/12/2007|
18/11/2007|
10/11/2007|
10/11/2007|
06/11/2007|
06/11/2007|
06/09/2007|
26/08/2007|
25/08/2007|
11/07/2007|
16/06/2007|
16/06/2007|
10/06/2007|
10/06/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
24/04/2007|
24/04/2007|
14/04/2007|
14/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
28/02/2007|
28/02/2007|
05/02/2007|
05/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
20/12/2006|
20/12/2006|
17/11/2006|
30/09/2006|
28/07/2006|
12/04/2006|
12/04/2006|
12/04/2006|
06/03/2006|
21/02/2006|
17/02/2006|
31/01/2006|
10/01/2006|
28/12/2005|
31/10/2005|
26/09/2005|
29/08/2005|
11/08/2005|
08/08/2005|
24/06/2005|
24/06/2005|
24/06/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|

ver + notas
 
Center for the Study of the Presidency
Freedom House