Rita Fernández 

Rita is the director of the Immigration Policy Project for UnidosUS, where she oversees the organization’s immigration policy priorities and advocacy efforts.   

Prior to joining UnidosUS, Rita held various roles with the City of San Diego. Most recently, she served as executive Director of the City of San Diego’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, an office created by Mayor Todd Gloria to advance San Diego’s “Welcoming SD” initiative. She also served as director of global affairs for Mayor Gloria, overseeing subnational diplomacy, fostering ties with sister cities and strengthening relationships with the government of Mexico and the neighboring city of Tijuana. In 2019, she was appointed by then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer as the city’s first immigrant affairs manager. 

Rita also worked in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as associate director of immigrant affairs, where she helped advance major initiatives to support immigrant and refugee communities and advised migration policy priorities. 

She also worked for members of Congress representing the San Diego delegation. During her time in the Washington, D.C. office of Rep. Juan Vargas, she worked closely on immigration and border issues as a press aide and special assistant. She also worked as an administrative assistant in the office of Rep. Susan Davis.  

Rita holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Diego and a Master in Public Policy from Princeton University. While at Princeton, she was a graduate research assistant at The Eviction Lab, an academic center founded by sociologist Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America and Eviction: Poverty and Profit in the American City. There, she contributed to a project called Undocumented and Evicted, which explored the impacts of the eviction process on undocumented immigrant communities.