Justice Labarga hailed as one of America’s ‘Great Immigrants’
Justice Labarga
Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga was one of 34 naturalized citizens honored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in its annual list of “Great Immigrants.”
Labarga came to the United States from Cuba with his family when he was 11. He has been a justice on the Florida Supreme Court since 2009 and was the first Cuban American to become chief justice. Previously, he served on an appeals court and a circuit court, and he also worked as an assistant public defender and in a law firm.
The 2022 Class of Great Immigrants is comprised of naturalized citizens from 32 countries and a wide range of backgrounds. This year, the Carnegie Corporation highlighted the work of immigrants who have been leaders in their local communities through their work in education, the arts, law enforcement, public service, health care, and small business ownership, as well as for their contributions as advocates for education equity, climate change, food security, and the homeless.
Each Fourth of July since 2006, the philanthropic foundation has invited Americans to celebrate these “exemplary individuals” by participating in its online public awareness campaign Great Immigrants, Great Americans, #GreatImmigrants.
Other honorees this year include two Nobel Prize laureates, a COVID-19 vaccine developer, a university president, an expert on nuclear threat reduction, a leading researcher on disabilities, the global CEO of the professional services firm Deloitte, the winningest coach in the history of U.S. women’s soccer, a principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre, and celebrities such as tennis star Steffi Graf, TV host and food expert Padma Lakshmi, actress and director Julie Delpy, and rock ‘n’ roll legend Neil Young.
In highlighting Labarga, the Carnegie Corporation focused on a 2014 court case in which Labarga found he had a lot in common with the applicant, Jose Godinez-Samperio — a former Eagle Scout, high school valedictorian, and law school graduate who had passed the Florida bar exam in 2011. But Godinez-Samperio could not practice law in the state because he was undocumented.
“He and I were brought to this great nation as young children by our hardworking immigrant parents,” Labarga wrote. “Both of us were driven by the opportunities this great nation offered to realize the American dream.”
Labarga reluctantly joined the court’s unanimous ruling that the applicant could not get his lawyer’s license in Florida because of his immigration status, but he wrote a separate opinion encouraging the Florida Legislature to amend state law to “remedy the inequities” of such situations, as California had already done. After Florida legislators subsequently amended the law to allow undocumented immigrants to practice law in the state, Godinez-Samperio was sworn into The Florida Bar on November 20, 2014.
“As long as I’m a judge, I am going to do what I think is right, what the law says is right,” Labarga said. “People may disagree with me on that. That’s fine. Reasonable people can disagree about complicated things. But don’t disagree with me about my devotion to integrity in interpreting the law.”
According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there were 9.2 million lawful permanent residents eligible to naturalize in 2021. Their pathway to citizenship is not easy, given the complex nature of the naturalization process and processing delays, which were exacerbated by the pandemic. As a result, the Migration Policy Institute, a Carnegie Corporation grantee, reports that the number of lawful permanent residents who were naturalized in 2020 marked a low point for the last decade. The Great Immigrants campaign aims to raise awareness among lawful permanent residents, the general public, and policymakers.
“Our Great Immigrants, Great Americans event each year is a reminder of the proven economic and societal benefits of encouraging immigrants to seek citizenship and become actively involved in our democracy,” said Geri Mannion, managing director of the Carnegie Corporation’s Strengthening U.S. Democracy program and a naturalized citizen of Irish descent. “The pandemic added new challenges to the federal immigration system, including a backlog of applications and the inability to hold naturalization oath ceremonies. Through philanthropic collaborations and the work of nonprofit service providers, we aim to make the process easier and more accessible to millions of eligible immigrants.”
The annual recognition of outstanding immigrants is a tribute to the legacy of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who, like these honorees, found success as an American and gave back to his adopted country. Carnegie founded more than 20 philanthropic organizations, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, a grantmaking foundation established in 1911 to advance the causes of democracy, education, and international peace.
Since 2006, the corporation has named nearly 700 Great Immigrants, forming one of the largest online databases of its type. The 2022 honorees mark the 17th class, who were recognized with a full-page ad in the New York Times on the Fourth of July, as well as through tributes on social media.
