IVÁN ESPINOZA-MADRIGAL
When Iván Espinoza-Madrigal first met the eyes of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard — relocated there by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a political ploy late last year — he saw something familiar in their troubled, uncertain expressions.
“Seeing mothers coming up to me as we were responding to the crisis in those first day s . . . it has echoes of so many experiences from my youth,” says Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which led a lawsuit against DeSantis for the stunt, condemning it as a blatant civil rights violation.
Any of the women in that group could have been his mother: Roughly 35 years ago, she was newly arrived to Massachusetts from Costa Rica and struggling to navigate the complex immigration and housing systems with her kids in tow. Any of the children could have been him at 9 years old, watching and wondering, Why isn’t there someone here to help us?
That question has become a call to action for Espinoza-Madrigal, 44, who has defended a range of marginalized groups during his eight years leading one of Boston’s most prominent civil rights organizations. In the past year, in addition to his legal assistance to the Vineyard migrants, he has called out the Newton Police Department over claims of racial profiling of Black spectators at the Boston Marathon; urged national youth sports organizations to adopt more inclusive policies; and defended minority business owners from alleged discrimination at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
Most notably, his organization’s federal lawsuit against Harvard University, demanding an end to legacy admissions, catapulted the organization to national prominence this summer, and came as other institutions in New England reconsidered their own legacy admission practices in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action.
But Espinoza-Madrigal stresses that his work “is not just the big fish — it’s also making sure that we are creating opportunities for justice at every level.” The longtime attorney says his lived experience, and commitment to meeting community members where they are, influence every part of his work and are bound up in a calling that connects him to his roots.
“I’ve wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember so that I can keep my family safe, keep my mother safe, and by extension help protect other people in my community,” he says. “I am very lucky and privileged that I get to do this work, making sure that people of color, immigrants, and low-income people have access to legal representation and to justice.”