Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado is a human rights activist, author, filmmaker, attorney, and public speaker. As a lawyer, Ybarra Maldonado is an aggressive trial attorney who has attained not guilty verdicts for his clients in both state and federal courts. In addition to attaining not guilty verdicts he has won motions to suppress evidence that have resulted in complete dismissal of cases and argued in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ybarra Maldonado co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary, "Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border," was instrumental in bringing about a major civil rights lawsuit against one of the vigilantes, and created and coordinated the Legal Observer Project during the Minutemen's operations. His book, "Born on the Border: Minutemen Vigilantes, Origins of Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Movement, and a Call for Increased Civil Disobedience" will be released in November of 2012.
Ybarra Maldonado has written about and given numerous talks on vigilantism, the militarization of the border and the growing immigrant's rights movement at numerous universities including Stanford, Harvard, University of California at Berkeley, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and to community groups from Washington to Iowa. In addition to receiving awards for his commitment to social justice, Ybarra Maldonado has testified in front of local and state bodies as well as having his work quoted at the United Nations. Ybarra Maldonado is frequently quoted in both the national and international media and his work has been profiled in the Intelligence Report, Stanford Lawyer, and in a documentary that premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, entitled 'Crossing Arizona.'
Ybarra Maldonado attended Cochise Community College in Douglas, AZ and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2002 with a degree in Religious Studies and from Stanford Law School in 2007. He has previously worked for the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and was a proud public defender in Cochise County and with the Federal Public Defender's Office in Tucson, AZ.
He currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife, Angeles Maldonado, and their handsome baby boy, Ray Emerson. Prior to his marriage to Angeles he was "Ray Ybarra" and legally has changed his name to "Ray Ybarra Maldonado." The family are avid fans of the Arizona State Sun Devils, Stanford Cardinal, and all things Arizona (minus the anti-immigrant politics).
- Title:Non-Residential Fellow
- Contact:rybarra@stanfordalumni.org
- Focus Areas:Privacy
- Areas of Expertise:border militarization immigration Privacy technology