ELEPHANT BUTTE — Today, Attorney General Raúl Torrez released a 224-page investigative report finding that New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department has systemically endangered the children it is sworn to protect — returning children to dangerous homes, obstructing oversight, and losing at least seven children to preventable deaths since the investigation opened in April 2025. Simultaneous with the report, AG Torrez announced a lawsuit to narrow the Children's Code confidentiality statute.

Senator Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) has introduced CYFD reform legislation every session since taking office in 2021, including bills to establish a best interest of the child standard (SB 207, 2023; SB 4, 2025), to narrow CYFD's use of the Children's Code confidentiality clause (SB 84, 2025), to create an independent Office of the Child Advocate (SB 373, 2023; HB 5, 2025), and to reform CYFD's reunification-first policy (2023, 2026 session).

Senator Brantley issued the following statement:

"This report is painful to read. These are real children — returned to dangerous homes, left without visits for months, warehoused in office buildings, failed at every turn by an agency that chose to protect its own reputation over their lives. As a mother and as a lawmaker, I find this unconscionable. And as someone who has worked on this issue for years, I know the hardest truth this report confirms: we have the tools to do better, and we have repeatedly failed to use them."

"The report makes clear that CYFD's reunification-first approach has cost children their lives; including children returned to parents actively under investigation for harming or killing a sibling. This is precisely why I have fought for a best interest of the child standard since 2023. CYFD must examine every factor through the lens of what is best for the child before a placement decision, rather than defaulting to reunification as a first resort. I fully intend to bring that bill back this session. We need to pass it."

"On the lawsuit — I fully support it, and it is long overdue. In 2025, I co-sponsored SB 84 to narrow CYFD's use of the Children's Code confidentiality statute, require disclosure in child fatality cases, and protect the people willing to speak up. That bill's core provisions became law as part of CS/SB 42. And yet this report tells us CYFD stonewalled ten formal records requests from the Attorney General's own investigators and still cited confidentiality to block a law enforcement inquiry. We cannot fix this broken agency without first gathering a full account of what is broken in this agency."

"We cannot accept the status quo. We must move forward with better policy, real accountability, and an agency that puts children first. I am committed to both, and I am glad to know the New Mexico Department of Justice will be an ally in that fight."