Thread: Feds oppose undocumented immigrant's right to get California law license

Feds oppose undocumented immigrant's right to get California law license

By Howard Mintz
hmintz@mercurynews.commercurynews.com
Posted: 08/02/2012 04:07:31 PM PDT
August 2, 2012 11:21 PM GMTUpdated: 08/02/2012 04:21:56 PM PDT

The Obama administration on Thursday said giving an undocumented immigrant a California law license would violate a 1996 federal immigration law.

In a brief filed with the California Supreme Court, the U.S. Justice Department opposed Chico-area law school grad Sergio Garcia's right to become a lawyer as long as he remains an illegal immigrant. The state Supreme Court, which took up the case earlier this year, had asked the federal government for its legal opinion.

"In the view of the United States, (federal law) prohibits this court from issuing a law license to an unlawfully present alien," government lawyers wrote.

Garcia, who has obtained his law degree and passed the state bar exam, is in legal limbo while the Supreme Court considers whether it has the ability to give him a law license. The State Bar Board of Examiners recommended licensing the 35-year-old Garcia, prompting the Supreme Court to take up the legal issue, particularly whether it would conflict with federal immigration restrictions.

Jerome Fishkin, Garcia's lawyer, said he was "disappointed DOJ did not support Sergio.

Sergio will keep pursuing his two dreams -- become a U.S. citizen and become a California attorney," he added.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has sided with Garcia's right to be a lawyer, as well as a large coalition of civil rights groups and law professors. Former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno backed Garcia in one of the legal briefs filed with the court.
Garcia originally came to the United States as a toddler and returned to Mexico at around 8-years-old, returning here for good when he turned 17 to finish high school. He has been waiting 18 years for his visa; his father and most of his siblings are already U.S. citizens.

In an interview this summer with this newspaper, Garcia said he was hopeful the Supreme Court would "let me move on with my life."

But Justice Department lawyers argue the 1996 law forbids granting undocumented immigrants "certain public benefits," including professional licenses. In its court papers, the government argues that "those provisions were plainly designed to preclude undocumented aliens" from getting commercial or professional licenses.

Harris, California's attorney general, had argued that admitting Garcia to the bar would be "consistent with state and federal policy that encourages immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to contribute to society."

The Supreme Court is likely to hear arguments in the case sometime in the fall. Florida' state Supreme Court is considering a similar case.

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz

Feds oppose undocumented immigrant's right to get California law license - San Jose Mercury News

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/illegal-ali...actice-260379/

Feds oppose bid by immigrant to be lawyer in Calif

FENIT NIRAPPIL, Associated Press
Updated 04:47 p.m., Thursday, August 2, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal officials have opposed the attempt of a Mexican immigrant living in the U.S. without legal permission to become a lawyer in California.

The Department of Justice issued its opinion in a brief released Thursday in the case of Sergio Garcia before the California Supreme Court.

Garcia has completed law school and passed the state bar exam. The final step to becoming a practicing lawyer is approval by the California Supreme Court.

Garcia's application is pending, but justices are questioning whether his immigration status means they must reject him.
Garcia, 35, was brought illegally to the United States by his parents as a toddler and applied for legal residency in 1995 when he was 17. He worked odd jobs and wrote self-help romance books to pay for an education without student loans.

He didn't expect his immigration status to interfere with his dream of being a civil litigator until the State Bar of California started asking for the immigration status of prospective applicants before he took the bar exam.

The DOJ argued in its brief that federal law prohibits people who lack legal immigration status from obtaining certain state benefits, including professional licenses, unless state law explicitly grants those benefits.

Garcia's attorney Jerome Fishkin said California does have a provision in its business and professions code that allows law licenses regardless of immigration status.

"It's an escape hatch for law applications and law admission for people who are not qualified to have Social Security numbers, which essentially are undocumented and certain out of country immigrants," Fishkin said.

He criticized the Department of Justice for failing to explain why that provision doesn't apply in the case of Garcia.

Garcia's supporters conceded that a law firm or government agency could not legally employ him, but they say he can still work as an independent contractor with his own clients.

The DOJ disagreed, pointing to laws that can punish clients who knowingly hire immigrants without work authorization.

The examiners of the State Bar of California and state attorney general's office have supported Garcia's application.

Feds oppose bid by immigrant to be lawyer in Calif - SFGate

Justice Department: California should not let illegal immigrant practice law

Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson Reuters
6:41 p.m. CDT, August 2, 2012

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Department of Justice told California's high court on Thursday that it should not allow an illegal immigrant to practice law in the state even though he passed the bar exam and has the backing of state officials.

The amicus brief, filed after the California Supreme Court sought the Justice Department's guidance in the closely watched test case, was a blow against the efforts by Sergio Garcia, 35, to win his law license despite his immigration status.

Garcia's case is the latest battleground in the nation's immigration wars that have seen the Obama administration grant leniency to young people brought into the country illegally as children even as a number of states have sought to crack down on illegal immigrants within their borders.

"The enforcement of the federal provisions governing employment by aliens is a responsibility of the federal government, and is not the proper subject of state-court proceedings, particularly in the context of state licensing," DOJ attorneys wrote in the 17-page brief.

"Instead, the only question before the Court is whether Mr. Garcia meets the criteria for admission to the bar under state and federal law," the lawyers wrote. "Because he is not an eligible alien ... and thus does not satisfy a condition set out in federal law, the bar application should be denied."

Garcia's lawyer, Jerome Fishkin, told Reuters he and his client were disappointed in the DOJ's position.

"We believe that our interpretation of the law is more persuasive than theirs," Fishkin said. "We will continue to work for Sergio's admission to practice law in California and his goal of obtaining U.S. citizenship.

A spokeswoman for the State Bar of California, which supports Garcia's bid to practice law, declined to comment while the case was pending.

PASSED THE BAR EXAM

Garcia, who passed the bar exam, was brought to the United States when he was 17 months old by his parents. They left to return to their native Mexico when Garcia was eight or nine, only to return to the United States again when he was 17.

His father was a U.S. permanent resident at the time, and later became a citizen. In 1994, he filed a petition for his son to be granted an immigrant visa. Approved in 1995, Garcia has been waiting 17 years for a visa that will allow him to become a lawful permanent resident and, eventually, a citizen.

Garcia has already won support from state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who wrote an amicus brief to the state's highest court urging that he be admitted to the bar and describing him as "a model of the self-reliant and self-sufficient immigrant."

A spokesman for Harris declined to comment on the Justice Department brief.

Critics, however, say that allowing immigrants who are in the country illegally to become lawyers undermines the justice system, and that they should become legal immigrants first.

"Mr. Garcia is not qualified to practice law because he continually violates federal law by his presence in the United States," retired prosecutor for the state bar of California, Larry DeSha, wrote in an opposition brief.

The California Supreme Court has not given any indication of how long it might take to make a decision on what could become a test case for other young and undocumented professionals.

The Obama administration announced in June that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought into the United States as children will be able to avoid deportation and get work permits.

That move was a nod to supporters of the DREAM Act, legislation that would allow certain children of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States to pursue college education and jobs and put them on a path to citizenship.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice declined to comment beyond the brief.
Justice Department: California should not let illegal immigrant practice law - chicagotribune.com

"Critics, however, say that allowing immigrants who are in the country illegally to become lawyers undermines the justice system, and that they should become legal immigrants first."

Yes that is correct. Here we have someone with common sense. This whole issue shouldn't have even come this far. Good Lord, imagine an illegal wanting to practice law? What nonsense and a waste of our time. What an insult to the American people if he got away with this.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=7...ia-law-license

The Obama administration announced in June that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought into the United States as children will be able to avoid deportation and get work permits.

This does not apply to Garcia. 1. His last trip into the U.S. was at age 17 (Had to be by age 16). He is to old, had to be no older then 30 in June.

They don't just want to pretend to be lawyers

they want to pretend to be doctors too.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/ice-deports...icense-261934/

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

They don't just want to pretend to be lawyers

they want to pretend to be doctors too.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/ice-deports...icense-261934/

Got to protect those good paying White Collar jobs while giving away good paying Blue Collar work until there is no good paying Blue Collar work left.

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/fla-bar-now...-alien-262154/