José Chapa
José Chapa is the advocacy manager for Vera’s Reshaping Prosecution initiative, leading efforts to enact legislative, regulatory, and policy change at the state- and local level, in order to shrink the front end of and address racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and increase prosecutors’ accountability to the communities they serve.
He has successfully advocated for various legislative changes, including coordinating the New York State campaign to pass the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act of 2019, which expanded farmworkers’ rights, statewide. With the Immigrant Defense Project, José also led efforts to pass the Protect Our Courts Act of 2020, preventing ICE from detaining and arresting people at state courts.
Outside of Vera, José enjoys theatre and traveling. Born in Mexico and raised in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, he has lived in New York City for nearly a decade.
José holds a BA in American studies from Wesleyan University.