How Did The World Become Crazy?

In Community of Hope, many people live safely while they deal with many issues.

Bear, a disabled person, needed a New Mexico ID card issued by New Mexico MVD to get benefits since he cannot work.

Bear was a firefighter, a first responder. He was born in Alaska and now resides in Las Cruces, NM.

Las Cruces is a very humane town in many ways. Nestled on the edge of The Organ Mountains and the desert, it has both a small town charm combined with cosmopolitan atmosphere.

All was well until he went to the MVD. He had his State Issued Alaska ID, his official Alaskan birth certificate, and all the numerous documents MVD required.

You'd think his biggest problem would be the crowded office and the long wait we all expect in any state. You would be wrong in that assumption.

In short order, his genuine documents were declared forgeries, he was handcuffed and detained by ICE in the rear of their car.

An American citizen, informed his home state wasn't a state, his papers declared a forgery, and issued an alternative identification as an undocumented farm worker.  I was laughing hard at first, and then it hit me...this could happen to anyone of us.

I'll continue to follow this story here in Las Cruces as it evolves.

Alaska Not A State Says NM MVD

truly stranger than fiction, a friend spent half an hour in handcuffs in the rear of ICE car.
His crime...according to a MVD supervisor, being an undocumented alien, forged documents.

My friend Bear was born in Alaska, has a valid birth certificate from Alaska, had a valid Alaska State ID card. He now has an undocumented New Mexico alternative ID from the State of New Mexico.

Apparently, New Mexico State Motor Vehicle Division supervisors don't recognize Alaska as a state. I was laughing thinking it was a joke until I actually saw the id.

Bear is now eligible for many programs assisting migrants and I will be following up with a blow by blow description of the many benefits he is offered.

To my friends and family in Alaska...i truly don't know what to say.