SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico will no longer deny licenses to practice law solely because of an applicant’s citizenship or immigration status, including some aspiring law students who arrived in the U.S. as children and don’t have a clear path to citizenship. Several states already have provisions that disregard residency or immigration status in licensure decisions. All applicants are still required to graduate from law school, pass the bar exam and undergo further character vetting by a board of bar examiners. Jazmin Irazoqui-Ruiz, a senior attorney at the New Mexico Immigration Law Center, was the first in the state to qualify for a law license through work authorization under the DACA program. “Immigration status won’t be a barrier to obtaining your law license“ now, said Irazoqui-Ruiz.

Source: thestar August 24, 2022 15:01 UTC