Stacey Francisco spent most of his life growing up in Fayette County. He graduated high school, works here in Lexington, took a break from school and is now enrolled and ready to start college. He sounds like your typical early twenty-something. But Francisco’s journey in life started in Mexico. His family and others braved a rushing river together to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. “I really don’t remember which year is was but I do remember I came here with my mother and my older brother when I was six or seven. But I remember six or seven.”
Francisco is a ‘Dreamer’ and has been protected under the DACA program which allows nearly 650,000 young, undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. President Trump tried to end the program but the Supreme Court ruled today that he could not. Francisco called it a big victory for dreamers. “We can now let the program build on itself and maybe even in the future have that program be another way for us to become citizens as there’s no really way for us dreamers to be citizens at the current time. But now I feel very hopeful for the future. And that’s all we can really do is hope.”
Francisco must reapply for the program every two years at a cost of about $700. His next dreams? Graduating with a business degree and becoming a U.S. Citizen.