Southcentral

Immigration enforcement agents swarmed a Soldotna home Tuesday morning and took a family of four, including a kindergartner, into custody.

Sonia Arriaga, from Jalisco, Mexico, has lived in Alaska since 2023. Her husband, Alexander Sanchez-Ramos, said agents arrived in about five vehicles and pulled her from her car when she returned from driving her middle child to school.

“I’m not talking about nicely, either. I’m talking about aggressively grabbing her and pulling her out. You know, she’s still in her pajamas, for crying out loud,” he said.

Sanchez-Ramos is an American citizen, born in Seward. He said masked agents placed him in handcuffs as he stood outside in temperatures hovering in the teens, wearing gym shorts and sandals. They questioned him about who else was at home. A relative brought the youngest child out.

“He was upset. He was crying, asking for his mom,” Sanchez-Ramos said.

Arriaga and her three sons, ages 5, 16 and 18, were eventually taken to Anchorage. The oldest son was put in jail, Sanchez-Ramos said, while the younger sons and their mom were detained in a hotel.

The story of their arrest reached a group of church leaders in Anchorage who told reporters the case raised grave moral concerns.

“How could anyone possibly claim to support family values when they are willing to stand by and be silent when a five year old is taken into detention?” said Rev. Michael Burke, senior pastor at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.

He said the incident could traumatize a child for the rest of his life.

Burke said he isn’t disputing the lawful enforcement of immigration restrictions. But, he said, federal agencies are trampling the law and violating the pledge that stepped-up enforcement would target criminals and the “worst of the worst.”

“As faith tradition leaders, grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we say that there is something deeply wrong here,” he said from his church pulpit, with eight pastors representing different congregations behind him. “There is a moral crisis in America where we detain and arrest families and small children.”

Sanchez-Ramos said Arriaga was in the country legally and was seeking asylum based on threats of violence in Jalisco. She had legal authorization to work, he said. She missed a hearing date in January, he said, but their lawyer assured them all the paperwork had been filed to revive her claim.

They met at a Mexican restaurant where they both worked and married earlier this month, he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not yet responded to an emailed query about the case.

Lawrence Fenumiai, the 34-year-old Juneau man charged with killing his Anchorage jail cellmate in a December 2024 assault, will return to the criminal justice system after being found mentally competent to stand trial.

Both Fenumiai and his cellmate, 36-year-old William Farmer, were diagnosed with schizophrenia in their 20s. Their family members say the state should never have housed them together.

Less than 24 hours after Farmer entered custody, prosecutors say, the brief but violent assault occurred, leaving Farmer with a traumatic brain injury. He never regained consciousness and died at Providence Alaska Medical Center in January 2025.

Now the Alaska Department of Corrections needs to house Fenumiai again in a way that safeguards his mental state and protects others in custody with him.

Farmer’s twin sister, Robin Farmer, told the Daily News this week that her family does not want Fenumiai put through the trial process.

“What good would a guilty verdict do?” Farmer wrote in a message. “It would only put him back in the same environment and circumstances it happened in.”

Fenumiai was found incompetent to stand trial in this case three times: in February, May and August of last year, according to filings in the case.

He was found competent last month.

Fenumiai spent a total of 335 days in restoration programs at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute starting in February 2025, according to court filings.

The programs help prepare criminal defendants with mental illness to stand trial. In Alaska, a defendant must understand court processes enough to meaningfully assist in their defense. Otherwise, the charges against them are dismissed.

On Monday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Josie Garton officially arraigned Fenumiai on the charges against him: first- and second-degree murder.

Fenumiai, wearing a hooded puffy coat over light blue hospital pants, attended the hearing, sitting quietly and without expression next to his attorney. A Court Services officer sat nearby.

Attorneys representing both the state and Fenumiai stressed the need for the Department of Corrections to provide safeguards as Fenumiai transitions back to jail.

Their concern is that Fenumiai could “decompensate” — become unstable or experience a sudden worsening of his symptoms — when he’s moved out of the familiar environment of API into the potentially overstimulating atmosphere at the jail.

“The state wants to be notified as soon as possible if there’s decompensation,” prosecutor Ashley McGraw said at a hearing last week, adding that prosecutors want the case to move along as quickly as possible to avoid future competency issues.

Fenumiai was supposed to be released from jail the week the fatal assault occurred in 2024. A judge had dismissed an assault case involving his father after finding Fenumiai incompetent to stand trial.

Instead, the former high school football standout was still in a general population intake unit with another man when Farmer came into their cell. Farmer was given a bed on the floor of the crowded unit in a cell intended for two people.

The incident raised questions as to how the Department of Corrections handles the challenge of housing people with diagnosed mental health disorders, who make up nearly a quarter of the state’s in-custody population.

Those questions are resurfacing now.

State corrections officials have “consistently failed” to keep people safe in custody, Robin Farmer said this week.

“They failed to keep William safe from harm, and failed to keep Mr. Fenumiai safe from causing harm. Why would anyone think they’ll do it now?” she wrote. “My family and I understand the complexities of a loved one living with mental illness, and although deeply saddened by the loss of William, believe the real criminal is the Department of Corrections and hold no personal hatred towards Mr. Fenumiai or his family.”

Fenumiai’s family declined to comment for this story.

The corrections department completed an internal review of the 2024 assault, according to spokesperson Betsy Holley.

“We are aware of comments made by Mr. Farmer’s family and understand their concerns regarding this situation,” Holley said in an email. “The Department of Corrections will not address allegations or ongoing matters in the media.”

While at API, Fenumiai is voluntarily taking medications prescribed to him, attorneys said during last week’s hearing. He can stay at API through the end of this week.

Medical staff at the Anchorage Correctional Complex will reach out to API staff to coordinate a “warm handoff” when Fenumiai is transferred back to the jail, assistant attorney general Kevin Dilg said during last week’s hearing. That would mean API staff familiar to Fenumiai would be directly involved as jail staff take custody of him.

Fenumiai may be housed in one of the jail’s two designated mental health units, said Dilg, who is representing the corrections department in the case. But that will depend on Fenumiai’s evaluation by staff at the jail, he said.

“I can’t really say a whole lot” until Fenumiai arrives at the jail for intake and assessment, Dilg said.

Fenumiai’s legal team may pursue an insanity defense. Under Alaska law, an arraignment starts a 10-day window for attorneys to file an insanity defense notice.

David Biegel, one of Fenumiai’s attorneys, on Monday asked Garton for a 60-day extension, a request opposed by the state. Biegel said he needs time to not only talk with his client but make sure he understands what they’re discussing.

“Mr. Fenumiai has been charged with first-degree murder. That’s the most serious crime we have in this state,” Biegel said during Monday’s hearing. “I think we all share a concern of decompensation but I don’t think that is any basis to steamroll a decision.”

It’s also possible the case will resolve via plea agreement. McGraw, the prosecutor, said the state has an approved offer.

Garton extended the insanity plea filing deadline to Feb. 17, noting that “there is an interest in this particular case in ensuring that it moves expeditiously toward trial, if it’s not going to resolve in another way, just because of the risk of decompensation.”

This story was published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.

A national storytelling nonprofit is launching its winter and spring season in Anchorage this week, with Alaska voices helping to kick off a series centered on the idea of the American Dream.

The Moth is an organization that promotes the art of storytelling through education, performance and other efforts. The Moth’s Mainstage show comes to the Atwood Concert Hall in Anchorage on February fourth. The Anchorage performance is presented by the Anchorage Concert Association. The event will feature and features Alaska storytellers Na Mee and Polly Napiq Andrews.

Na Mee is a writer and teaching artist from Juneau. She said being invited to share the stage in her home state feels especially meaningful.

“I just feel honored to be one of the Alaskan storytellers for this particular show,” Na Mee said. “I love that The Moth reaches out to local storytellers, so people from the community are represented on stage, sharing their experiences from their viewpoint as Alaskans.”

While the story Na Mee will tell takes place out of state, she says it is deeply shaped by the Alaska experience.

“The story doesn’t take place in Alaska, but it’s grounded in the fact that we are from Alaska,” she said. “I think it especially speaks to fellow Alaskans and parents who may have taken their kids outside of Alaska, and what that might feel like.”

For Na Mee, storytelling itself is a cultural practice, not just a performance.

“Our family doesn’t really sit around talking about how we feel. At dinner, we tell stories. That’s how we transfer what we know about the world and how we feel about it,” she said.

The show’s director, Michelle Jalowski, says her focus is less on forcing a theme and more on curating voices that naturally resonate.

“When I’m curating a show, I try to put together the most compelling stories that represent a diverse group of voices. Finding local storytellers is always my favorite part, and Alaska has been good to us,” she said.

Anchorage storyteller Polly Napiq Andrews brings a background in trauma healing and cultural storytelling. She says story is central to identity in Indigenous communities.

“Story is one of the centerpiece values of who we are as Indigenous people,” she said. “We share stories to teach the younger generation who we are, where we come from, and how we live in community.”

Andrews said the idea of the American Dream, for her, is rooted in healing.

“The American Dream means healing and living a good life. It’s about breaking cycles of trauma and passing on healthier ways of living to our children, so they can have a better life than we did,” she said.

In Anchorage, those stories will open the season for a national tour, offering audiences a chance to sit together and listen to what dreaming looks like now.

The Moth Mainstage comes to the Atwood Concert Hall for one show, at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, presented by the Anchorage Concert Association.

The Alaska Court of Appeals took up the case of a Whittier woman Thursday who was indicted in 2023 on felony charges of voter misconduct.

Like others born in American Samoa, Tupe Smith is a U.S. national but not a U.S. citizen. Smith says she thought that meant she could vote in local elections but not presidential elections.

When filling out voter registration forms in the past, Smith and her lawyers say a Whittier city official told her to check a box that said she was a U.S. citizen, even though Smith knew she wasn’t, because the forms did not have a box for U.S. national.

That led to an investigation by Alaska State Troopers, who arrested Smith in late November 2023.

Voting rights advocates have linked Smith’s case – and a similar, separate case that includes some of her family members in Whittier – to national efforts by conservatives to end birthright citizenship in the United States. The advocates say the plight of people born in American Samoa highlights a group that is already being denied the right to vote.

After a grand jury indicted Smith in early 2024, her lawyers asked a Superior Court judge to toss the indictment, saying a trooper who testified to the grand jury had misled them on the issue of whether Smith intentionally checked the box saying she was a U.S. citizen.

The judge denied the request. But in a rare move, the Alaska Court of Appeals accepted Smith’s appeal before the Superior Court judge’s final decision and on Thursday heard oral arguments from one of her lawyers, as well as an attorney for the state.

Now, one of the main sticking points is whether the words “knowingly” and “intentionally” mean the same thing in regards to a person making a false statement on a voter registration form.

While some people might use the terms interchangeably, doing something “intentionally” requires a higher mental state – in legal terms, mens rea, or “guilty mind” in Latin – than doing something “knowingly.”

Smith’s attorney, Whitney Brown, told the three-judge Appeals Court panel Thursday that the words do not mean the same thing. In writing the law on voter misconduct, Brown said, the Legislature used both terms differently and therefore they should be understood differently.

“The record also reflects that if she had known she was not supposed to vote, she would not have done so,” Brown said. “So the state has just shown no evidence of an intent to mislead or deceive. So we believe that the court, in this instance, can take the extra step of just dismissing the indictment.”

The state wants the Appeals Court to send the case back to the Superior Court for a final decision. The state’s attorneys argue that the words “intentionally” and “knowingly” can mean the same thing.

“It’s not that she didn’t know what she was writing was false. It’s that she thought she was supposed to write something that she knew was false for these specific purposes, and that’s a little bit different,” Assistant Attorney General Kayla Doyle told the Appeals Court judges.

Doyle agreed with Brown that it was a difficult, but important, case. And there were multiple puns made in Thursday’s oral arguments – intended or not – about how intentional the Legislature had been in including the word “intentional” in the law on voter misconduct.

The Appeals Court will make a decision in the case at a later date, though it’s unclear when that will be.

Ski patrollers at Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood rescued a dog from a deep ravine last week that had been missing for 13 days.

Otis, who’s described as a friendly Bernese Mountain Dog who loves snacks, was reported missing on Dec. 17 from his home in Girdwood on Crystal Mountain Road.

Then, on Dec. 29, an Alyeska staff member heard a faint bark as they were heading up the Ted’s Express lift for an early morning shift, said Bayne Salmon, mountain communications manager.

“Later that day, another patroller on staff heard another bark while they were heading up the same chair lift, and upon further review, looked into the canyon and noticed a brown, fuzzy dog deep in the canyon,” Salmon said.

Salmon said a team of five patrollers grabbed rescue gear, found an entrance to the ravine, and — after coaxing Otis with treats — were able to harness him and lift him out. The dog then walked down to the aid room with his tail wagging, Salmon said. Otis got water and lots of love from his rescuers.

Salmon said ski patrollers weren’t professionally involved with locating Otis but stepped in to help with his rescue. He said the team was ecstatic to find the dog after multiple days of below-freezing temperatures.

“It’s really positive, you know, jovial,” he said. “Everyone was thrilled to find him and [it’s] just hard to believe how long Otis had been out there, and to find him in good condition was a miracle, truly.”

Instances like this are unusual because dogs aren’t allowed on the ski hill in the winter, Salmon said.

The spot Otis was found in is extremely steep, technical terrain. From start to finish, he said the rescue took about two hours. Salmon wasn’t directly involved in this rescue, but he said it sounds like Otis was a good patient.

“He was not enthusiastic about wearing the dog evac harness, but I think his exhaustion from his long, cold adventure led him to mostly just be still and calm as we raised him out of the canyon,” Salmon said. “Overall, he’s a good boy.”

Salmon said he’s heard Otis lost some weight, but is happy to be back home.

Western Alaska residents who evacuated to Anchorage after the remnants of Typhoon Halong battered their villages are now moving out of city hotels and into temporary housing.

They’re looking forward to having more privacy, being able to cook for themselves and having more space, said Jeremy Zidek, public information officer for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“Hotel rooms are small,” Zidek said. “They’re meant to be someplace that you stay temporarily. These folks have been living there for quite some time.”

The state moved evacuees into hotel rooms around Anchorage in early November, after some had stayed in mass shelters for several weeks following the storm.

Ex-Typhoon Halong slammed into Western Alaska in October with wind, rain and flooding that devastated some communities, including Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where homes floated off their foundations. One woman in Kwigillingok was found dead in the aftermath, and more than 1,000 people were displaced.

More than 500 people who evacuated to Anchorage are still in hotel rooms. But, as of the end of the year, the state had moved more than 150 people into temporary housing.

There are financial and logistical hurdles that slow down the process, Zidek said.

“With a diverse group of people with different capabilities, we have to really do that case by case and do that case work,” he said. “So it’s a complicated process, and to do that with 600 people is taking some time.”

Each move requires background and credit checks, and the homes need to be furnished, which Zidek said has been a challenge: They’re routinely buying out stores around the city. The state is also working to keep extended families close to each other. The cold weather this winter makes moving more difficult as well, Zidek said.

Another hurdle is the tight housing market in Anchorage. But housing is tight across the state, and Zidek said Anchorage actually has more availability than the rest of Alaska.

The state of Alaska has a cost-sharing agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund the hotel stays, with FEMA paying 75% of the cost and the state covering the rest. Once people move into temporary housing, Zidek said, that changes.

“Most people moving into temporary housing are taking advantage of that FEMA rental assistance,” he said. “And then as we move down the road, there will be other housing assistance funding that could be brought to bear for people. It’s based on a case-by-case basis.”

Some people have started working and are able to pay their own rent, Zidek said.

There are some people who won’t qualify for temporary housing because they don’t pass background checks or credit requirements, Zidek said. The state plans to find alternative housing for those people, he said.

The state will focus on rebuilding in Western Alaska in the spring, Zidek said, so that those who want to return home can do so as soon as possible.