Illegal
immigrants can be licensed to practice law in California under one of
eight bills expanding immigrant rights that were signed by Governor
Jerry Brown on Saturday.
The California Supreme Court,
which finalizes requests of applicants to be licensed as a lawyer in
California, is now authorized to approve qualified applicants regardless
of their immigration status.
Other
new laws prohibit law enforcement officials from detaining immigrants
based on federal government instructions except in cases of serious
crimes or convictions, and make it illegal for employers to retaliate
against workers on the basis of their citizenship.
"While Washington waffles on immigration, California's forging ahead," Brown said in a statement. "I'm not waiting."
The
new laws, including the one letting undocumented immigrants become
lawyers, could set a precedent for the nation. They are part of a push
to increase immigrant rights in the strongly Democratic state. About 38
percent of California's population of 38 million is of Hispanic descent.
On
Thursday, Brown signed a law making undocumented immigrants eligible to
apply for drivers licenses. California, which will join at least nine
other states when the law takes effect in 2015, expects 1.4 million
people to apply for licenses over three years.
A
study by the University of Southern California has found that more than
2.6 million people, most of them Latinos, lack legal status in the
state.
Assemblyman Luis Alejo, a
Democrat from Watsonville, said the new laws illustrate the change in
California over the last 20 years.
"The
bills that were signed by the governor today show that California is
bucking the trend that we've seen in other states over the last few
years - Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, all states that have enacted
legislation that really restricted or attacked immigrants in those
states," Alejo said.
California is doing what it can at the state level in the absence of immigration reform by the U.S. Congress, he said.
Earlier
this year, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate approved a path to
citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the United States
illegally, but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is
unlikely to follow suit.
The
California law that allows illegal immigrants to practice law grew out
of a case of an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Sergio Garcia, who was
brought to the United States as a baby and later graduated from a
California law school. He has received the support of the State Bar of
California and the state attorney general.
Critics
of Garcia's bid to gain admission to the California bar included the
U.S. Justice Department, which opposed it in a brief filed with the
state's Supreme Court last year.
While
Garcia may now be admitted to the California bar, two other Mexican
immigrants — one in New York and another in Florida — are pursuing
similar cases.
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