This oral history interview with Daniel Franco-Núñez was conducted by Sankar Raman, Nancy Dollahite, and Angelica Alarcon on June 1, 2020. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interview was conducted using Zoom video conferencing software; only an audio recording of the interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

In this interview, Franco-Núñez discusses his memories of his family’s journey to the United States. He shares the reasons his family chose not to pursue authorized immigration in 1988, and talks about U.S. immigration laws at the time. He shares his experiences as an undocumented immigrant in California during the 1990s, including the difficulty in finding places to rent. He also describes the process of paying taxes as an undocumented immigrant. He talks about his high school experience in Milwaukie, Oregon, including learning English, and navigating the process of applying for college. He shares his reasons for attending Portland Community College, and talks about jobs he held while studying, including working for charter schools and as a real estate agent. He talks about his work as a member of the Human Rights Commission and a community safety coordinator for the city of Portland. He speaks about how the Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) affected his life, and about his citizenship status at the time of the interview. He shares his thoughts about the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality that were occurring at the time of the interview. He closes the interview by sharing his plans for the future.