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 However, the universities rescinded the financial aid after learning his status.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.