Efrén is an immigrant, civil rights lawyer, and writer. He immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a teenager and was the first in his family to attend college.

He currently serves as Director of Strategic Litigation and Advocacy at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where he leads legal and technical experts dedicated to developing and executing innovative litigation and advocacy to advance social justice. He previously served as the deputy legal director of SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, focusing on ending immigrant detention, including through pro bono legal representation to detained immigrants in the Deep South, advancing workers’ rights and guaranteeing access to the asylum process. 

Before joining SPLC, Efrén was the Director of the Racial and Economic Justice Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project. He also worked at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright). 

His writings on immigration policy have been published by the New York Times, USA Today, and Newsweek, and he has testified before Congress and at briefings on Capitol Hill about immigration and border policies.

Efrén is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School. He is an avid soccer fan and enjoys reading books about famous art thefts. He lives in Texas with his family.