The Stacks project

Proof. By the very construction of the topology on $|\mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{lci+}|$ in Properties of Stacks, Section 100.4 we find that $|\mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{smooth}|$ is an open subset. Let $\xi \in |\mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{lci+}|$ be a point. Then there exists a field $k$ and a scheme $X$ over $k$ with $X$ proper over $k$, with $\dim (X) \leq 1$, with $X$ a local complete intersection over $k$, and with $X$ is smooth over $k$ except at finitely many points, such that $\xi $ is the equivalence class of the classifying morphism $\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k) \to \mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{lci+}$ determined by $X$. See Lemma 109.15.2. By Deformation Problems, Lemma 93.17.6 there exists a flat projective morphism $Y \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k[[t]])$ whose generic fibre is smooth and whose special fibre is isomorphic to $X$. Consider the classifying morphism

determined by $Y$. The image of the closed point is $\xi $ and the image of the generic point is in $|\mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{smooth}|$. Since the generic point specializes to the closed point in $|\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k[[t]])|$ we conclude that $\xi $ is in the closure of $|\mathcal{C}\! \mathit{urves}^{smooth}|$ as desired. $\square$