New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday excoriated the state’s child welfare agency for prioritizing “family reunification” over the safety of the children in its care, and said his office will be suing the agency over allegations it misused state confidentiality laws to hide systemic failures.
During a news conference in Albuquerque, Torrez outlined a 214-page report from the state Department of Justice that documented its investigation of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. He was flanked by the surviving aunt of 16-year-old Jaydun Garcia, who took his own life last year while in state custody. Torrez said Garcia’s death served as “a wake-up call” for the agency and sparked the NMDOJ investigation.
CYFD told Source NM via email the agency would have a response to the report, but it had not been provided by publication. This story may be updated.
The NMDOJ’s key finding stated that CYFD has prioritized “family reunification at virtually any cost—returning children to dangerous caregivers with histories of substantiated abuse or chronic neglect.”
Torrez said that 14 children died while in state custody in the last two years.
“They should have been protected by the state, and if we had an effective system, they would be with us today,” Torrez said.
The report details numerous cases of such abuse. In the news conference, Torrez highlighted the starvation death of a blind and non-verbal 16-year-old girl, who was the subject of seven CYFD referrals in five years. The girl’s mother was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison, but CYFD staff, in July 2025, petitioned to release her from jail and take custody of her four surviving children, according to the report.
“That is unconscionable,” Torrez said. “That is inexcusable and unfortunately, that is not the only example of reunification taking priority over safety.”
Overall, the report identified eight areas it described as “systemic failures” at CYFD. In addition to prioritizing reunification at the expense of safety, it said ineffectual leadership and an unstable workforce; gaps in protecting drug-exposed infants; undermining law enforcement; devaluation of foster parents; unsafe and traumatic office stays; along with problematic congregate care facilities have contributed to a child welfare landscape in New Mexico that is in “crisis.”
Torrez called for the state’s next governor and Legislature to prioritize redesigning the agency “from the ground up.”
“I am looking for a legislatively led comprehensive initiative to reexamine the structure of this entire agency,” he said.
In recent years, lawmakers and others have increasingly criticized the agency for a range of issues such as rising costs of settlements for child death and maltreatment while in state custody, as well as legal probes into children injured by private security guards.
In 2025 lawmakers passed House Bill 5, which established the Office of the Child Advocate, housed by the New Mexico Department of Justice, to respond and investigate complaints brought on behalf of children in CYFD custody.
The state Senate Republican Caucus on Wednesday responded to the NMDOJ report with a list of legislation it said its members had tried to introduce to address problems at CYFD, and issued a statement saying that every New Mexican “should be enraged and disgusted by the harrowing details brought to light by today’s report. This report is a devastating indictment of failed leadership and misplaced priorities all at the expense of the safety, security, and well-being of our state’s most abused and neglected children.”
Torrez on Wednesday also announced a new lawsuit brought by NMDOJ against CYFD and its use of confidentiality laws meant to protect the identities of children in its custody.
He said CYFD failed to hand over reports to the NMDOJ during its investigation and alleged it used confidentiality laws to “intimidate employees, advocates and families” from speaking out.
“The department has been misapplying, misinterpreting and abusing confidentiality as a way to shield adults in the positions of power and as a weapon of retaliation,” Torrez said. “That is going to come to an end.”
