Claudia Muñoz

Claudia E. Muñoz Castellano is a community organizer and strategist with nearly 20 years of experience. She believes that those most impacted by harmful systems can liberate themselves and build collective power when provided with knowledge, tools, and resources. She has organized and won collaborative community campaigns across multiple issue areas of the immigrant justice movement, particularly at the intersections of labor and the criminal legal system. Claudia’s expertise includes designing and executing community-driven organizing strategies for policy and practice change, base and power building, program design and implementation, participatory defense and legal empowerment, and power analysis. From 2017-2023, Claudia worked at Grassroots Leadership, where she was in charge of the overall programmatic strategy of the organization. She was undocumented for 21 years and in deportation proceedings for 8 years before obtaining permanent residence. She resides in Texas and believes that just as the South has been a cruel laboratory for oppression and harm, it can also be a place where people most impacted by oppressive systems can explore and reach liberation, joy, empowerment, and life beyond survival. Claudia has co-authored two books about immigration detention and serves on the Highlander Center and Just Futures Law Boards of Directors.