Welcome Back, Aidín Castillo '11
Aidín Castillo, a longtime immigration attorney and immigrants’ rights advocate and a UC Davis School of Law alumna from the Class of 2011, has been named executive director of the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center.
Castillo, currently directing attorney of Oakland’s Centro Legal de La Raza Immigrants’ Rights Program, will assume leadership of the Immigrant Legal Services Center in June. Based at UC Davis School of Law, the center serves immigration-related legal needs of undocumented and immigrant students in the entire University of California system.
“The University of California is fortunate to have someone of Aidín Castillo’s caliber, experience and heart to take the reins of the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center,” said Kevin R. Johnson, dean of UC Davis School of Law.
María Blanco, the center’s executive director since its launch in 2014 under the direction of UC President Janet Napolitano, is retiring. During Blanco’s tenure, the groundbreaking center drew widespread recognition as one of the first university programs of its kind. Earlier this month, Blanco received the UC Davis Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community.
“María Blanco did outstanding work in establishing and leading the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. The center she envisioned and formed out of whole cloth is a model being duplicated at colleges and universities across the country,” Johnson said.
As part of Centro Legal’s Immigrants’ Rights Program, Castillo has supervised, administered and managed immigration legal services along with supervising staff members, including 16 attorneys.
In previous roles as a Centro Legal supervising and staff attorney, Castillo managed a large caseload in providing legal representation to detained and non-detained immigrants. Before Centro Legal, Castillo worked as an attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and as a fellow with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
While in law school, Castillo participated in the Immigration Law Clinic, co-chaired the La Raza (now Latinx) Law Students Association and received the Lorenzo Patiño Public Service Award and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund scholarship.
A double Aggie, Castillo holds a B.A. in political science and history from UC Davis. As an undergraduate, Castillo co-founded Scholars Promoting Education, Access and Knowledge (S.P.E.A.K.), UC Davis’ first support and advocacy group for undocumented students.