Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer is a senior policy analyst for Immigration at American Progress. Her family immigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico, and she grew up in East Los Angeles, California. At the age of 18, she was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and has since become an advocate for a permanent immigration solution for all of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Prior to joining American Progress, Barrientos-Ferrer worked for the Southern Border Communities Coalition, a national coalition convened by Alliance San Diego that works toward border policies that expand public safety for all, protect human rights, and welcome people at U.S. borders. Before that, she worked at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). There, she held various roles, from leading CHIRLA’s campaign to protect DACA to organizing undocumented youth in Northern California to successfully fighting to secure more education resources through the expansion of A.B. 540 and the passage of state bills such as the Dream Loan Program and Dream Resource Liaison—all for undocumented students through the state.
Barrientos-Ferrer holds an associate in arts in Chicano studies and social behavioral analysis from East Los Angeles College and a Bachelor of Arts in ethnic studies and political science from California State University, Sacramento.