New Mexico AG sues CYFD over reports that staff instructed foster teen to cross Mexican border

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Tuesday announced his office filed a lawsuit against the state’s child welfare agency following reports that agency staffers took a teenage boy out of the foster care system and told him to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite with his estranged mother in Ciudad Juárez.

In a news release, the New Mexico Department of Justice said the lawsuit against the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, filed in the state’s First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, came after the state Office of the Child Advocate reviewed the case and found probable violations of the child’s constitutional rights and reckless disregard for his health and safety.

“The State of New Mexico cannot claim to protect children while abandoning one of its own at an international border,” Torrez said in a statement. “This case is about more than one child. It is about whether the agency entrusted with protecting our most vulnerable children is following the law, honoring constitutional rights and putting the safety of children above bureaucratic expediency.”

In a statement to Source NM, CYFD Communications Director Jake Thompson wrote that the “most important thing is that the child is safe and living with his mother, who CYFD has been in frequent contact with as recently as yesterday by phone and via messages sent to her today.”

“The department also has been in close communication throughout with the child’s godparents and the Mexican consulate, which has worked with Mexico’s Integrated Family Development department, assessing the child’s welfare, ensuring his safety and addressing his needs,” Thompson wrote. “CYFD is reviewing the complaint and the order and will respond to them in court.”

Torrez’s lawsuit alleges that CYFD officials gained custody of the teenager after determining he was abused and neglected, but dropped the case weeks later and drove him to the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, where they instructed him to walk alone into Mexico and reunite with his mother. The suit alleges that the child’s mother had recently been deported following a drug conviction.

It also alleges that the teenager sought re-entry to the U.S. and that CYFD officials asked federal authorities to bar him from entering the country.

Court records show NMDOJ lawyers argue that CYFD has violated the state Children’s Code and the teenager’s constitutional due process rights.

In April, Torrez published an investigative report focused on CYFD, which alleged the department often prioritized family reunification at the expense of children’s safety.

At an interim legislative committee hearing last week, state lawmakers expressed outrage over the recent reports — one said the troubled child welfare agency appears to be “a breeding ground for predatory behavior.”

At that hearing, Torrez’s NMDOJ presented 50 proposed reforms for CYFD, including amending state law to require that the CYFD secretary have professional child welfare experience.