Team

Executive Director

Angélica Salas

Angelica Salas is an immigrant from Durango, Mexico.  She came to the United States as a child to reunite with her parents, who came to provide a better life for their family.  Angelica comes to her understanding of immigrants and immigration first hand, she and her entire family lived in the country undocumented, experienced deportation, and were able to legalize their status.  In 2008, Angelica became a U.S. citizen.  She makes Pasadena, California her home, the first city she arrived at as a child.  She is married to Mayron Payes, an immigrant from El Salvador, and has two children Ruben and Maya Payes.

Angelica joined CHIRLA in 1995 and became CHIRLA’s Executive Director in 1999.  In her role, she has transformed CHIRLA into a mass membership immigrant-led organization that empowers immigrants and their families to win local, state, and national policies that advance their human, civil, and labor rights.  She has grown CHIRLA into one of the nation’s largest and most effective immigrant rights organizations that organize, advocates, educates, and provides legal services to all immigrants. She has spearheaded ambitious statewide and national campaigns to expand immigrant rights. She has helped found organizations and coalitions to advocate for immigrant workers, youth, and families.  Among her achievements include: winning in-state, financial aid and grant programs for California’s undocumented students, establishing day-laborer centers that become national models, winning drivers’ licenses for undocumented drivers, decoupling local police departments from immigration enforcement, expanding access to immigrant legal services and winning Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Angelica is a state and national leader in the advocacy for immigration reform and immigrant justice.  She was instrumental in the formation of and serves on the Executive Committee of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) and the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), two of the country’s largest immigrant rights coalitions.

Angelica is a recognized grassroots leader that plays a national leadership role in all major immigration reform campaigns. She serves as a national spokesperson for immigrant communities and immigrant rights campaigns. Angelica has sought expert responses from Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Univision. Telemundo, NPR, etc. Recently, Angelica’s work led to the House of Representatives passage of the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, a bill to give people with DACA and TPS a path to citizenship.

She graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Sociology in 1993.  In 2007, Occidental College awarded her an Honorary Doctorate for her many contributions making her one of the youngest persons to earn such an honor in the college’s history.

Associate Director

Zerihoun Yilma

Zerihoun Yilma is the associate director of CHIRLA. He is an immigrant from Ethiopia, who is committed to fighting racial, economic, and social inequality. He has worked tirelessly to bridge diverse immigrant groups with native-born Americans to bring immigration reform to the top of the American moral agenda.

Zerihoun has studied and worked in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors in Ethiopia, Botswana, Namibia, India and the U.S.

He currently serves as a Board member of the Californians for Human Immigrant Rights Leadership Action Fund, as the Board Chair for Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and as a Board member of Casa Libre Shelter/Freedom House (CHRCL).Before coming to CHIRLA, Zerihoun worked in financial services in Los Angeles and in Africa, where he managed small to medium manufacturing and service plants.

In Los Angeles, Zerihoun has helped shape several nonprofits: he is co-founder of the African Communities Public Health Coalition (African Coalition), co-founder of the Academia Moderna, a longtime member of Black Immigration Network (BIN) and has served as vice president of the Virgin Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral.

Zerihoun earned a Masters in accounting and cost accounting from Poona University and a BA in industrial management from Shivaji University in India.

As a social change leader, Zerihoun continually refines and expands his management skills through participation in leadership programs. He is a 2015-2016 Cross movement fellow at Rockwood Leadership Institute.

Executive Administrator

Areli Hernandez

Favorite Quote

“Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly”- Micah 6:8

Director of Administration

Yolanda Jones

Yolanda Jones joined CHIRLA in 2013 and became its director of administration in 2014. She oversees office management, information technology, bookkeeping and the executive and administrative assistant staff. She oversees the work plan under the organization’s strategic plan. Before CHIRLA, Yolanda lived in Washington D.C. and worked for the National Council of La Raza and Center for Community Change. Yolanda was born and raised in El Salvador, and she came to the United States as a teenager to reunite with her parents. She has completed certificate programs at Montgomery College and George Washington University to complement more than two decades of nonprofit administrative experience.

IT Manager

Gebriel Dawit

Favorite Quote

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

IT Support Specialist

Batbayasgalan Enkhbold

Favorite Quote

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”– Maya Angelou

Custodian

Victoria Francisco

Favorite Quote

“Aquí estamos y no nos vamos y si nos echan nos regresamos”

Receptionist

Sandy Lopez

Favorite Quote

“The Future depends on what we do in Present” – Mahatma Gandhi

Administrator

Maribel Molina

Favorite Quote

“See it, Believe it, Achieve it.”-  Lori-Ann Muenzer

Political Director

Diana Colín

Diana Colin joined CHIRLA in 2009 as an undocumented college student volunteer. Her family had emigrated from Mexico when she was two years old. In 2013, she became statewide campaign organizer, and a year later she became CHIRLA’s director of civic engagement. Under her leadership, the CHIRLA Action Fund, the organization’s political arm, expanded its electoral work to statewide elections. In 2016, CHIRLA’s Inmigrantes En Acción campaign contacted more than 127,000 voters, registered more than 11,000 to vote, and achieved 82 percent voter turnout. Today, Diana leads the Immigrant Political Power Project, an electoral program for immigrants by immigrants. Diana graduated from California State University Fullerton in 2011 with a BA in political science.

Civic Engagement Coordinator

Raquel Cetz

Favorite Quote

“Always lead with love and work towards the liberation of our entire communities with passion, compassion, and dignity. ‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.’” – Rumi

Electoral Field Manager

Karen Diaz

Favorite Quote

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” -Michelle Obama

Census Campaign Manager

Esperanza Guevara

Favorite Quote

“We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation.” – Cesar Chavez

Call Center and Data Manager

Solia Rodriguez

Favorite Quote

“The way to right wrongs is to shine the light of truth on them” ~ Ida B. Wells

Director of Communications

Jorge-Mario Cabrera

Jorge-Mario Cabrera joined CHIRLA in 2008 as director of communications after long experience in immigrant rights nonprofits. Before CHIRLA, he worked  at the National Alliance of Latinoamerican and Caribbean Communities, the Central American Resource Center, and Bienestar Human Services. He joined CHIRLA because he believes no family should be torn apart and no person should be dehumanized by this country’s immigration laws. Jorge-Mario has raised CHIRLA’s profile in the media as one of the nation’s premier advocates for immigrants.

Communications Manager

Tessie Borden

Favorite Quote

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner

Digital Media Coordinator

Jose Luis Tadeo

Favorite Quote

“Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see”
– Marvin Gaye

Director of Community Education

Miriam Mesa

Miriam Mesa joined CHIRLA in 2000 as an information and referrals specialist, was promoted to coordinator in 2009, and became the department’s director in 2016. She has received specialized training in immigration law, wage theft, intimate partner violence, LGBTQ issues, housing, access to benefits, worker’s rights, mental health awareness and the citizenship application process. She has extensive paralegal training in immigration law and is accredited with the Department of Justice. As a Cuban immigrant (she arrived in 1995), she intrinsically understands the challenges of immigrants. Miriam graduated with a chemical engineering degree from the University of Havana.

Regional Field Coordinator, Orange County 

Katie Brazer

Favorite Quote

“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.” – Brene Brown

Information and Referral Assistant

Daysi Flores

South OC Community Education Representative

Karen Hernandez

Favorite Quote

“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible”

Community Education & Outreach Program Assistant

Julian Herrera Millan

Favorite Quote

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”.  – Alice Walker

Community Education Coordinator

Jessica Huerta

Favorite Quote

“Mantente alejado de aquellas personas que tratan de menospreciar tus ambiciones. Las personas pequeñas siempre lo hacen, pero los verdaderamente grandes hacen sentirte que tú también puedes ser grande” – MARK TWAIN

Information and Referral Assistant

Esmeralda Morales

Favorite Quote

“The only problem is whenever I try to make a taco, I get too excited and crush it.” – Kevin Malone, The Office

Regional Field Coordinator Fresno

Brenda Ordaz

Favorite Quote

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” – Martin Luther King

Information and Referral Specialist

Elizabeth Rodriguez

 Favorite Quote

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more! Then we think we can!”

Regional Field Coordinator, San Fernando Valley

Marisol Rubio

Favorite Quote

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Regional Field Coordinator, South LA

Grelia Vegas

Favorite Quote

“Social Justice starts in your heart!!!!”

Director of Development

Aurora Colindres

Aurora Colindres joined CHIRLA in 2019 and brings more than 15 years of development experience to the organization. Previously, she was director of development at the Los Angeles Parks Foundation, and before that at the Western Center for Law and Poverty. She was also director of foundation and corporate giving at Weingart Center Association, serving the homeless on Skid Row. As a young undocumented youth, Aurora helped process some of CHIRLA’s first applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Joining CHIRLA for her was coming full-circle. Aurora graduated with a BA in marketing from the University of Central Florida.

Grants Manager

Julio Martinez

Favorite Quote

“Every journey begins with a single step.” ― Lao Tzu

Grant Writer

Sharon Park

Favorite Quote

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

Development Associate

Ana Reyers

Favorite Quote

“Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.” – Kobe Bryant

Individual Giving Manager

Michell Saucedo

Favorite Quote

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Director of External Relations

Apolonio Morales

Apolonio Morales joined CHIRLA in 2014 as political director and transitioned to external affairs director in 2019. Previously, he was a labor organizer for the California Nurses Association/United Steelworkers’ Healthcare Workers Alliance and a community organizer for Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO) and Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action (BOCA), where he served as interim director. He was national immigration organizer for Faith in Action’s Campaign for Citizenship. A child of undocumented immigrants, Polo has dedicated his life to advancing pro-immigrant policies and changing the anti-immigrant narrative in the United States. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in English in 1999.

Campaign Coordinator

Shannon Camacho

Favorite Quote

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” – Dr. Cornel West

Payroll Administrator

Patricia Garcia

Favorite Quote

“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change…I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” – Angela Davis

Senior Accountant

Nancy Enriquez

Accountant 

Arvin Nazari

Favorite Quote

“Never regret a day in your life: Good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give lessons, and best days give memories.”

Legal Director

Luis Pérez

Luis Pérez joined CHIRLA to coordinate its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) clinic in 2012. He is now the organization’s legal director, supervising a staff of 58 in 10 offices, including a deportation defense team. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, he was brought to the U.S. at age 9. In high school, Luis became the public face of initiatives like state AB540, which let undocumented immigrants pay in-state tuition at California public universities. He would later become the UCLA School of Law’s first undocumented graduate, in 2010. He Holds a BA in political science from UCLA and an associate’s degree in Chicana/o Studies from Los Angeles Mission College.

Managing Attorney, Clinical Programs

Karla E. Aguayo

Favorite Quote

“Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world.” – Oscar Romero

Staff Attorney

Karen Aguilar

Managing Attorney

Maritza R. Agundez, Esq.

Favorite Quote

“Talk is Cheap… It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.” – Cesar Chavez

South East LA Regional Field Coordinator

Elizabeth Alcantar

Favorite Quote

“A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire.”

Legal assistant

Bryan Alvarado

Favorite Quote

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” – MLK

Senior Paralegal

Bryon Alvarez

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Paralegal

Angelique Arroyo

Favorite Quote

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know” – Aristotle

Skadden Fellow/Staff Attorney

Christina A. Avalos

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Citizenship Coordinator

Fabiola Barcenas

Staff Attorney

Sandy Benitez

Favorite Quote

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama

Legal Fellow

Noel Calderon

Favorite Quote

The best part of anything is the moment before it starts.”

Staff Attorney 

Navil Canal

Favorite Quote

“Laughter is timeless, Imagination has no age, and Dreams are forever” – Walt Disney

Paralegal

Ely Canseco

Favorite Quote

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” – Michelle Obama

Senior Paralegal

Claudia Diaz Martinez

Favorite Quote

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

Senior Paralegal

Angelica Escobar

Favorite Quote

“Enjoy the Little Things”

Staff Attorney

Perla Esquivel

Favorite Quote

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” – Angela Davis

Paralegal 

Jorge L. Galindo

Favorite Quote

“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

DOJ Accredited Representative

Bethzy Garcia

Favorite Quote

“The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.”  – Michelle Obama

Law Clerk

Gabriela Garcia

Favorite Quote

“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” – Cesar Chavez

Legal Fellow, Student Legal Services

Nancy V. Gomez

Favorite Quote

“It is our choices … that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter.

Paralegal

Pamela F. González

Favorite Quote

“Without community, there is no liberation.” – Audre Lorde

Supervising Attorney

Andres Guerra

“And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Paralegal

Brian Guzman

Favorite Quote

“The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

Paralegal, Removal Defense Unit 

Liliana Ibanez

Favorite Quote

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

Legal Assistant

Bolivia Iezza

Favorite Quote

“…for us the first and main task isn’t to fight against our compañeros, but with them to change the system we live in for another, in which men and women will have the right to live, to work, to organize.” – Domitila Barrios De Chúngara, Bolivian labor rights leader and political activist

Paralegal

Mayra Lopez

Favorite Quote

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Legal Fellow

Ana Lujan

Favorite Quote

“Without community, there is no liberation”- Audre Lorde

Managing Attorney

Yolanda Martin

Favorite Quote

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” – Marianne Williamson

Legal Fellow

Leslie Melendez

Favorite Quote

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

Legal Support Manager

Jose Mendoza

Paralegal

Mercedes Montano

Office Coordinator

Maria Montes

Managing Attorney

Karla Navarrete

Favorite Quote

“ESTE ES MI PUEBLO ESTA ES MI LUCHA”

Legal Assistant

Aimee Negrete

Favorite Quote

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” – Audre Lorde

Supervising Law Clerk

Sylvia Ortiz

Favorite Quote

“Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed” – Michelle Obama

Supervising Staff Attorney

Lourdes Pena Escandon

Favorite Quote

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

Director of Marketing and Membership

Mauricio Ramos

Mauricio Ramos joined CHIRLA in 2018 as marketing manager and transitioned to director of marketing and membership in 2019, overseeing CHIRLA’s branding efforts and membership sales. Previously, he was director of marketing/communications at Giant Media Agency, director of digital marketing and PR at Fabric Interactive, and online marketing specialist at M80 Services. Born in Guatemala, Mauricio developed a passion for the Latino community in college as a Latin American Studies fellow. He graduated from California State University in Los Angeles with a BA in Latin American Studies.

Membership and volunteer Coordinator

Zuleyma Barajas

Membership Manager

Edgar G. Aguilar

Favorite Quote

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai

Director of Organizing

Antonio Bernabé

Antonio Bernabé joined CHIRLA in 1997 as a community organizer and later  became director of organizing. At CHIRLA, he helped create the National Day Labor Organizing Network, an advocacy and grassroots organization that fights for the rights of day laborers. Some of his career achievements include helping create the Building a Community leadership development program; advocating for AB60, which allowed immigrants to get drivers’ licenses in California; and organizing communities to support SB54, the California Values Act, which limits collaboration between local police departments and federal immigration enforcers.

Northern CA Regional Organizer

Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer

Favorite Quote

“Be nice to the people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down.”

Orange County Organizer

Janeth Bucio

Favorite Quote

“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.” – MLK

Wise Up! Organizer 

Kathia Garcia

Favorite Quote

“Pies para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar” – Frida Kahlo

San Fernando Valley Organizer 

Maru Galvan

Favorite Quote

“Don’t wait for an opportunity, create it.”

San Bernardino Organizer

Mireya Gonzalez

Favorite Quote

“Una nación no debe juzgarse por cómo trata a sus ciudadanos con mejor posición, sino por como trata a los que tienen poco o nada.” – Nelson Mandela

High Desert Organizer

Mariela Jaquez

Favorite Quote

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Northern Regional CDN Organizer

Eva Jimenez

Favorite Quote

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel

California Dream Network Statewide Youth Organizer 

Melody Klingenfuss Arteagay Minuet

Favorite Quote

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” (Psalm 23:4)

Program Coordinator

Diana Ramos

Favorite Quote

“Mirando  atrás, estoy lleno de gratitud,
 Mirando hacia adelante, me  lleno de visión,
Mirando hacia  arriba, me lleno de fuerza,
Mirando hacia  dentro, descubro la paz.”

– Proverbio Indigena

Antelope Valley Organizer

Patricia Salazar

Favorite Quote

“Be you the change you want to see in the world, sharing your own humanity!”

Central Valley Organizer

Donna Serna

Favorite Quote

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo

Senior Organizer

Pedro Trujillo

Central Valley Organizer (CDN)

Gloria Vallin

Favorite Quote

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” – Socrates

Director of Policy and Advocacy

Joseph Villela

Joseph Villela joined CHIRLA as a policy advocate in 2005. By 2010, he had moved up to senior policy advocate, and in 2011 he became director of the department. A committed government relations professional and political adviser with fifteen years of experience and established a successful record of accomplishment in developing and managing legislative and budgetary campaigns to improve the lives of California’s most vulnerable. More recently, he directed the development of CHIRLA’s 13-point Golden Promise legislative agenda, of which nine initiatives became law. He graduated with B.A in Sociology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2005.

Policy Counsel

Carl Bergquist

Favorite Quotes

“I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Murphy, dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944).

“Taken together, “the words of the President” help to “create the strong perception” that the rescission decision was “contaminated by impermissible discriminatory animus.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, concurring opinion in the DACA case, DHS v. Regents (2020).

Policy Advocate

Mariana Magana

Policy Advocate

Christopher Sanchez

Favorite Quote

“The town I live in is lonely is so lonely till I have to cry. I told my mother, father too, I told them just what I was going to do. If I live one more year, I’m packing my bags getting away from here, the town I live in is so lonely till I have to cry, and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I cried.” – McKinley Mitchell