AFPI New Mexico Calls for Accountability After CYFD Sends Foster Teen to Abusive Parent in Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) New Mexico state chapter released the following statement from New Mexico Executive Director Vincent Torres after reports that Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) removed a 15-year-old U.S. citizen from foster care and left him at an El Paso border crossing to meet his estranged mother in Mexico:

"The first priority of the child welfare system is the safety and well-being of children. New Mexico abandoned that responsibility when CYFD drove a 15-year-old American citizen to the border and sent him into Mexico to live with a parent the state itself had found responsible for abuse. He told them he didn't want to go. They sent him anyway. Then they closed the case.

This did not happen in a vacuum. For years, this state’s administration has presided over a child welfare agency in crisis, one the Attorney General's own investigation found has repeatedly placed children in harm's way. This case is not an isolated incident. It is the predictable result of a system that has gone unaccountable for far too long.

New Mexicans deserve answers, and this child deserves justice."

Learn more about AFPI New Mexico here.