Ignacio Alarcón, interlinked in immigrant justice

PHOTO: Co-president of Yolo Interfaith immigration Network, Ignacio Alarcón

By Sneha Budhathoki

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Ignacio Alarcón defines advocacy as a consistent involvement in “offering relief and providing resources” to the people most marginalized.

Alarcón is the co-president of the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network, a non-profit organization that advocates for the needs of local immigrant communities through support and service. As Alarón grew up in an immigrant household, they have been involved for many years working at programs with those undocumented. 

“There was no right or wrong way on how to do what I was doing with this, this was just me letting my creative juices flow,” Alarcon said.

Ignacio became co-president of YIIN during the period of funding the ApoYolo initiative (which means HelpYolo). YIIN has historically supported programs like DIAS, a summer enrichment program for the children of farm workers who are mainly immigrants of Mexican and Native American descent and may miss the middle of their native countries’ school years. Programs like these allow immigrant families to lead the way for their needs and be matched with volunteers or financial support.

As co-president alongside John Katonah, Alarcón assists in coordinating meetings, providing resource referrals, finding micro-housing, and coordinating student internships.

Originally, Alarcón had thought that they may become a lawyer, but they ultimately were inspired to follow their life’s work: immigrant justice.

Before YIIN, Alarcón served as director and funded the first undocumented student support program in Washington state at The Evergreen State College. They described their first time taking charge as “like building a plane while flying it” because it was new and had different aspects to it.

After growing up in predominantly white areas, “It was great to be a part of a team who shared a similar background,” Alarcón said.

To them, this was about creating innovative solutions to new problems and thinking creatively to support others.

Alarcón then started serving YIIN and the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center at UC Davis, supporting students in legal resource access, college applications and covering the costs of basic necessities, for example, providing gift cards to save money on grocery shopping. On top of that, they taught courses on working towards immigration justice at UCD.

AB540 is a California Assembly Bill highly significant in supporting college financing regardless of immigration status, allowing undocumented immigrants to receive tuition grants and more financial aid. Senate Bill 68 also helped by increasing financial aid access for immigrants to receive money in community college and in-state colleges.

“They’re a very valuable resource,” Katonah said. “They help pass the bills in legislation, I usually turn to them to ask anything about legal immigration. [Alarcón has] influenced people largely by giving millions of dollars from writing grants.”