Cesar Vargas’ NY Bar Admission Delayed
by Ryan Campbell | June 19, 2015
Cesar Vargas’ NY Bar Admission Delayed
Cesar Vargas’ Bar Admission suspended
When the news broke out that Cesar Vargas, one of the leading voices of the undocumented and immigrant rights movement, was cleared to become an attorney, there was celebration: it was a symbol of how much the undocumented community gives back to society, the advances the undocumented movement has made and the culmination of a 3 year legal battle through all the way to New York’s Supreme Court. Cesar Vargas’ NY Bar admission, however, is still uncertain: he is now fighting for his right to practice in the Iowa courts.
Like many undocumented immigrants, Cesar’s family left his country because of a lack of economic opportunity. With limited financial means, they took a dangerous trip, ultimately being smuggled into America. Because of his status, Cesar was ineligible for loans and scholarships. This and the fact that his family left everything behind in Mexico meant Cesar’s pathway to law school was far more difficult than for most, and he was not even sure if he would be able to practice law should he graduate. Ultimately, not only did he pass, but he did so at the top of the class, and his story would join many others to help push a President to offer DACA and DAPA.
This dramatic story about an enterprising young immigrant leaving his country and breaking through institutional roadblocks at every level educationally and professionally to make his own American Dream has been put off for one reason: Steve King, and those around him, are unreasonable.
For those who are not up on their New York Bar admission law, New York does not allow those who are on probation to be certified as attorneys, rather, typically requires them to wait the probationary period. Ordinarily this would not be a big deal, however, Cesar was arrested at Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit rally.
“It was weird,” said Cesar of the arrest. “We were trying to yell out a question to Gov. Perry and were escorted out by the police, like many other times demonstrators spoke out and it was not appreciated. We fully complied with officers, who brought us out to the parking lot and left. Ten minutes later, however, they returned and placed us under arrest, refusing to explain why. It seems that the organizers for Steve King were pretty upset, and wanted to press charges.” Because these charges have been pursued, and the judge in his case wanted to give him a relatively light sentence of probation for trespassing, this is now an issue for Cesar’s bar admission.
Despite the contributions to his community and the fact he is only guilty of the relatively minor charge of trespassing, the prosecution in Iowa is claiming Cesar is not rehabilitated and is a threat to society, asking the judge for the longest probationary period allowable.
Now that they found out what this would do to me back in New York, the prosecutor is trying to keep Cesar on probation for as long as possible; it’s surprisingly petty and vindictive, but that’s really what we’ve come to expect from those around Steve King in the immigrant community: he’s about as bad for Latinos and the GOP as Donald Trump’s announcement speech.
In a way, several important criticisms levelled at the GOP come to a head in Cesar’s case: The demonstrators were here to talk about immigration, an issue that the GOP is still struggling with since last election cycle’s “self deportation.” In addition, the event was hosted by Steve King, a far right Republican that the GOP has not been able to marginalize or quiet at all known for his ‘calves the size of cantaloupes’ comment about Dreamers and leading votes against DACA. Their reactions here show that, at every level, they aren’t ready to address the criticism that leadership must survive to be effective.
Right now, the symbolic fight in Iowa and New York mimics the national debate: Cesar was brought into the country at the age of 5 through no fault of his own; started his own business, creating several jobs; graduated near the top of his law school class and had his struggle well documented in outlets like the New York Times, MSNBC and Al Jazeera.
To try to prevent guys like Cesar from continuing to live in and contribute to American society, Representatives like Louie Gohmert (R-TX) have literally tried to label people like Cesar “Terror Babies.” Meanwhile, Steve King leads votes to try to deport Dreamers like Cesar. If the GOP has moved on from “self-deportation” beyond Jeb’s speeches, they’re doing a great job at keeping it a secret.
As it stands right now for Cesar, he is still navigating the complicated New York Bar admission process while dealing with the fallout from his First Amendment exercise at the Freedom Summit. On the broader, national stage of politics, candidates will need to react to incidents like this by either double down on “Self Deportation” as Gov. Walker seems to be doing, or be ready to face down Steve King.
King will not miss an opportunity for some anti-immigrant spotlight, and won’t simply fade into the background as candidates stumble over each other to look good in Iowa: anyone running will alienate the Latino vote by spending time being friendly with him on camera, or will need to prove they can make people in his party turn on him. Until then, we can expect King and those like him to continue to grandstand over immigrants like Cesar.