On Feb. 1, an undocumented lawyer will be sworn-in to the State Bar of California. The move will come almost one month after the California Supreme Court held that undocumented immigrants were not automatically disqualified from being licensed as attorneys in the Golden State. Under the ruling, Sergio Garcia, the undocumented immigrant at the center of the controversy, can be admitted to the state bar.
Garcia — like many others in the country — was brought to the United States as a child and remained undocumented through no fault of his own. He grew up in Northern California, graduated from college and law school, passed the notoriously difficult California bar exam on the first try, and satisfied the Committee of Bar Examiners of his good moral character.
