bad license plate

involves a slang term for undocumented immigrants. a custom license plate in las cruces recently caught the eye of abc-7’s stephen decatur. is it beyond the bounds of good taste? and how did it get approved? the story comes from our new mexico mobile newsroom. stephen looklive: according to this form-your request for a prestige plate will only be approved if the state does not find it derogatory or obscene. the prestige plate in question in las cruces reads wetback. tonight we here from vicente who owns the plate and the state who approved it. vicente mendiola: my in laws used to call me the wetback so i said well that’s funny and cute so why not. stephen: to mendiola the plate is funny and allows him to take ownership of the phrase. some have even told him they love the plate, but not everyone is in love with the plate. mendiola: there was a white lady about 3 months ago and she stopped me and said, she opened up the door and she said, your license plate stinks, i said well thank you. stephen: we showed a picture of the plate to people in las cruces and this was there reaction. guy 1: huh, unusual woman: oh no woman 2: wetback, ok i don’t know what that means. guy 2: well i think we are in a free country aren’t we. vicente: yeah, yeah once the state approves it, why not, you know i’ve seen something disgusting, but what can you say, if they wanna do that, that’s fine with me. i like my plate. stephen stand up: when we saw the plate driving through las cruces, the the question that we had was how lenient is the state willing to be with prestige plates. stephen: we reached out to the state about the license plate and they responded with following. “this plate i clearly derogatory. it should not have been approved for a custom license plate. we are in the process of recalling the plate.” smyth also told abc-7 that in 20- 13 the department changed the approval process, and guidelines and the plate would not have been approved had it been issued after 20-13. vicente: so it was wetback, mohow?, or illegal, but i like wetback. stephen looklive: now as mendiola mentioned the form that he filled out and it gives three choices for your prestige plate. he told us wetback was his first choice and was approved in the 1980s. in las cruces for the new mexico mobile news room, i’m stephen decatur abc 7. the m-v-d of new mexico decided today to recall the plate after we questioned them about it, we were not able to reach out to mr. mendiola about his