From the archive: This story covers events from April 2026. FAN is adding past cases to its public record; the latest available update is under “Where it stands now.”
Santa Fe, New Mexico — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued the state Children, Youth and Families Department on April 8, 2026, accusing the agency of hiding behind confidentiality laws to avoid oversight and retaliating against caregivers who spoke up. The suit was filed the same day his office released an investigative report finding that seven children had died in CYFD custody since the investigation was announced less than a year earlier.
What the investigation found
The New Mexico Department of Justice report, titled “Systemic Failures: How CYFD Endangers the Children It’s Meant to Protect,” followed a yearlong investigation that began after a 16-year-old boy died by suicide at a CYFD-contracted group home, Searchlight New Mexico reported. Among the findings the department released:
- Children in New Mexico foster care change placements at nearly twice the national rate. One child had more than 30 placements in under six years.
- CYFD’s use of its own offices as overnight placements for children rose nearly 500%, and investigators found no documented justification in 708 cases they reviewed.
- Over a four-and-a-half-month period, 62% of critical incidents, including violence, drug use and runaways, happened in CYFD offices.
For years, CYFD has operated as if it answers to no one.
Raúl Torrez, New Mexico Attorney General
The secrecy lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed in First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, alleges that CYFD reads the state’s confidentiality laws too broadly to block oversight and to silence critics. Searchlight reported that the Justice Department made more than 10 formal records requests over six months; many were rejected outright and others arrived months late and incomplete.
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The department asked the court to bar CYFD from using confidentiality as a shield against oversight, to end what it called punitive removals, threats of prosecution and retaliation against caregivers and advocates, and to affirm that confidentiality laws protect identifying information, not anonymized accounts of how the agency behaves. Searchlight reported that the Justice Department cited a separate case in which CYFD removed a boy from his grandmother’s care and barred her visits after she cooperated with prosecutors, which the department called retaliation.
The agency’s response
CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson did not address the lawsuit directly in April, but said Cabinet Secretary Valerie Sandoval had stated the agency has “zero tolerance for retribution or retaliation,” according to Searchlight. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the report shocking but said shock alone does not solve the problems.
Where it stands now
In July 2026, CYFD filed its answer in First Judicial District Court, denying that it misuses confidentiality laws, retaliates against critics or obstructed the attorney general’s investigation, and asking the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported on July 7, 2026. District Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood is hearing the case. FAN found no public ruling in the case as of November 2026.
The report describes an agency that kept children in offices without documented reasons and moved them from home to home, and the lawsuit describes the same agency using secrecy to keep the public from seeing it. When an agency can remove a child from a relative who cooperated with prosecutors and then cite confidentiality to avoid explaining itself, families have no way to hold it to account. FAN explains how families can push back in its guide to filing a CPS complaint.
Key facts
- Agency: New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)
- Report released and lawsuit filed April 8, 2026, by Attorney General Raúl Torrez
- Seven children died in CYFD custody after the investigation was announced
- Office stays rose nearly 500%; no documented justification in 708 reviewed cases
- 62% of critical incidents in a 4.5-month span happened in CYFD offices
- CYFD denied the allegations in July 2026 and asked for dismissal with prejudice
Sources
- New Mexico Department of Justice — New Mexico Department of Justice Releases Investigative Report into CYFD, Files Lawsuit to Enforce Transparency and Protect Children (2026-04-08)
- Source NM — New Mexico AG releases blistering report, announces lawsuit against state child welfare agency (2026-04-08)
- Searchlight New Mexico — New Mexico AG sues CYFD over ‘shroud of secrecy,’ refusal to disclose records (2026-04-09)
- Santa Fe New Mexican — CYFD denies that it refused to produce records in NMDOJ’s investigation (2026-07-07)
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