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Activist Cesar Vargas Becomes First DACA Recipient To Be Sworn In As An Attorney In New York

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Cesar Vargas, a leading immigration activist who is now helping shape the 2016 Presidential campaign as a strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders, yesterday became the first DACA recipient to be sworn in as an attorney in the state of New York.

It was the end of a four year battle for Vargas, who passed the bar exam on his first try in 2011, but was denied bar admission the following year due to his immigration status. Following a court battle, a five-judge panel unanimously ruled in his favor, clearing the last hurdle for him to finally achieve his dream.

“I must admit, there were moments where I felt defeated; there were moments where I thought I was not going to be a lawyer,” Vargas said during a press conference yesterday, according to the New York Times.

Vargas’s efforts were nearly derailed last year, when he and another immigration activist, Marco Malagon, were slapped with trespassing charges after both were arrested at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January 2015, a gathering hosted by Steve King and Citizens United.

The two were arrested — without any explanation — for standing while holding signs and asking Gov. Chris Christie and former Gov. Rick Perry about their support for the bogus lawsuit filed by 26 states to block DAPA and expanded DACA.

“Mr. Vargas was sentenced in June to a year of probation, which was cut to six months in December. His record was expunged, clearing the way for admission to the bar,” noted the NYT.

The battles finally ended yesterday, when Vargas was sworn in with 67 others as new members of the state bar.

After the ceremony at the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn Heights, Mr. Vargas, held the certificate of admittance he had purchased for $5 as proof, and embraced his mother, Teresa Galindo. She started weeping. So did he. “Because,” Ms. Galindo, 72, said, “the child that I took by the hand crossing the border is now a lawyer.”