Deputy Director of Programs and Campaigns
Office: Los Angeles
Apolonio “Polo” Morales is CIPC’s Deputy Director of Programs and Campaigns. In this position, he supervises the organization’s policy, government affairs and organizing programs. Polo has a decade of experience in the immigrants’ rights movement.
Before joining CIPC, Polo was the Director of External Affairs at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). He was previously a labor organizer for the California Nurses Association/United Steelworkers’ Healthcare Workers Alliance and a community organizer for Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization. Polo also served as interim director of the Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action and 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 grew up in El Monte, Calif., where attended Mountain View High School. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with an English degree and a minor in education.
In his spare time, he writes short stories and has been published in the online publications KCET Departures and Tropics of Meta. Most recently, he was published in East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte, a collection of 31 essays that trace the experience of a California community over three centuries, published by Rutgers University Press.