Aracelis Lucero: Mexican Children and Deportation

Conversations with Allan Wolper

Aracelis Lucero was born and raised in the South Bronx, won a scholarship to Middlebury College, received a Masters Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and became a Wall Street executive. But as immigration became a major issue in America, she gave up her career in finance to devote her life to helping Mexican children and their families, both documented and undocumented. Lucero is now executive director of Masa-MexEd, a nonprofit organization that focuses on educating and mentoring some of the 500,000 Mexicans who live in New York City. She says that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for Homeland Security, often instilled fear in children by deporting Mexican families. After an (ICE) raid in January 2016, during the Obama Administration, parents pulled their kids out of school fearing that they would be returned to Mexico. “It was very tough for children,” Lucero said in a May 2016 interview on Conversations with Allan Wolper. “There was a lot of fear