A week after his first birthday, Bobby Hartwell's parents dropped him off at the Colorado State Home and Training School for Mental Defectives northwest of Denver.
He never saw them again.
For the next 30 years, Hartwell, who has cerebral palsy and mental retardation, lived at the school and at a nursing home. In 1980, Wade Blank, a preacher and activist for the disabled, got Hartwell out, helped him get public assistance and a home, and taught him to live on his own.
Now, at 57, Hartwell may lose it all, starting with his apartment - because he can't prove he's a U.S. citizen.
Hartwell's dilemma is the result of new rules - a 2006 Colorado law, federal requirements in the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act, and 2004 homeland security legislation - aimed at thwarting terrorists and barring public benefits for undocumented residents.
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