Lawyer who is also a DREAMer will be at the table during Supreme Court oral argument
As ImmigrationProf blog readers know, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection from deportation and work permits to qualifying immigrants who came to the US as children. Theodore Olson will take the lead defending the program. He’ll be joined as co-counsel in one of the consolidated cases by Luis Cortes, a 31-year-old graduate of the University of Idaho College of Law who is himself a DACA recipient.
As a CNN story featuring Cortes says, he will be “bringing a crucial perspective into the courtroom and anchoring what can sometimes be an abstract debate in the very concrete reality of his presence. It’s his future that hangs in the balance, too.”
“A lot is at stake for me individually,” he said. “I will be looking at nine individuals who will ultimately decide whether my clients will be deported and me with them.”
Cortes came to the US with his parents from Mexico when he was a year old and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He says he learned “little by little” that he was undocumented. His father was deported to Mexico, leaving behind Cortes’ mother, Cortes, and his younger siblings. Cortes decided to pursue law school and received DACA during his 2L year. PBS News Hour has more details about Cortes coming to terms with his own legal status and his work on immigration law.
“These nine justices hold my future,” Cortes said.
MHC
Posted in: