Monica Vargas-Huertas
Monica Vargas-Huertas, Esq., is Assistant Director for Civil Rights Initiatives at the United Food and Retail Workers (UFCW) Int’l Union, representing nearly 1.3 million workers across the USA and Canada. Before moving to Washington, D.C., Monica served as the Political & Community Outreach Director of UFCW Local Two, representing approximately 17,000 union members, many of whom are immigrants working in the meatpacking and food processing industries in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. In this role, she worked closely with members, providing immigration services and leading civic engagement and political campaigns. Monica is a bilingual and biliterate licensed immigration attorney with Master's degrees in Government and Public Policy and in U.S. Legal Studies from the University of Connecticut School of Law. After migrating to the U.S. 13 years ago, she quickly became an advocate, developing strategies and programs aimed at addressing social issues affecting union members and immigrant workers in rural and urban areas across the country.