Politics

CYFD blasted after dumping U.S. teen at Mexican border to meet abusive parent

Leave a Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

New Mexico’s troubled Children, Youth and Families Department is facing new outrage after a 15-year-old American citizen from Doña Ana County was reportedly removed from foster care, driven across state lines, and dropped off at an El Paso border crossing to reunite with his estranged mother in Mexico despite past abuse concerns.

The Albuquerque Journal reported that CYFD staff transported the teen on July 6 to the Paso del Norte crossing in El Paso, where he was allegedly told around 8:30 p.m. to walk across the bridge into Ciudad Juárez with his belongings and meet his mother.

The child refused to cross into Mexico and reportedly spent 10 days in a homeless shelter while Texas Child Protective Services assisted him. When Texas CPS contacted New Mexico CYFD, the agency reportedly refused to retrieve the child, saying his case had been closed and he was no longer under its jurisdiction.

The boy was later escorted to Juárez and reunited with his mother on Friday. He reportedly ran away almost immediately but has since been found.

The situation has sparked fierce criticism from child welfare advocates and the America First Policy Institute’s New Mexico chapter, which said the case reflects a broader failure inside New Mexico’s child welfare system.

“The first priority of the child welfare system is the safety and well-being of children,” AFPI New Mexico Executive Director Vincent Torres said in a statement. “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.”

Torres added, “He told them he didn’t want to go. They sent him anyway. Then they closed the case.”

According to the Journal, the teen was born in New Mexico in 2010 to parents who were Mexican nationals. For years, he lived with family friends described in court records as godparents, along with two siblings. Publicly available court petitions reportedly show the father had been out of contact for several years and that the mother had previously been named in a substantiated abuse claim involving the child. Sources familiar with the case also told the Journal the mother was recently arrested on a criminal charge and deported to Mexico earlier this year.

At a July 6 custody hearing, which was not public, sources told the Journal that CYFD moved to dismiss the abuse case, said it had no concerns about the mother, and planned to reunite the child with her despite the teen’s objections.

CYFD defended its actions in a statement, saying, “Nothing is more important to CYFD than ensuring vulnerable children are safe, protected from harm and have a chance to thrive, and the department kept that mission front and center as it sought to unite the 15-year-old boy with his birth mother in Mexico.”

The agency said it assessed the mother, including two home visits, and “determined her to be safe and appropriate for placement of the child.” CYFD did not specify when or where those visits occurred.

The agency also said it had “several conversations with this child about unification with his mother prior to the hearing” and determined he had not suffered abuse or neglect.

“Throughout this case, the department took strenuous steps to keep the child safe and to keep a family together,” CYFD said. “The department had no legal grounds to take custody and place him in foster care.”

But Dawn Walters, head of New Mexico’s Office of the Child Advocate, raised concerns about what happened after the teen was left at the border.

“Being sent to a parent in an unfamiliar country would be a really difficult transition, a really traumatic transition for a child who already has a lot of trauma,” Walters told the Journal.

Walters said she was concerned about the child’s health conditions and prescription medication needs and had not been in contact with him since he entered Mexico.

“Per CYFD, this case is closed to them,” Walters said. “He wasn’t living with his mother, so it’s not a return. It is a concern to me that he was sent to a parent who hadn’t been providing care for him, and it’s not clear to me what steps were taken to ensure that the mother was aware of his medical needs, of his prescriptions and how to obtain those things once he was in a different country with a different medical system.”

Maralyn Beck, executive director of New Mexico Child First Network, also told the Journal the teen’s wishes appeared to have been ignored. She compared the case to deporting a child.

Under New Mexico law, Beck noted, youth 14 and older are recognized as having agency in such cases.

“This youth has made his wishes clear,” Beck said. “Unless you have spoken to the youth himself, we are ignoring his explicit concerns, his explicit wishes, and I do not believe he is safe.”

The controversy comes just months after the New Mexico Department of Justice released a blistering 220-page report accusing CYFD of systemic failures. That report stated, “Instead of safeguarding vulnerable children, the Department has prioritized family reunification at virtually any cost — returning children to dangerous caregivers with histories of substantiated abuse or chronic neglect, and who refuse treatment or services to address those underlying issues.”

DOJ Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez said the latest incident reinforces those findings.

“Our independent investigation into CYFD found that the agency’s failures were not isolated incidents, but the result of deep, systemic problems that have put New Mexico’s most vulnerable children at risk for years,” Rodriguez said.

“The circumstances surrounding this latest incident only reinforce what our report concluded: the systemic issues identified in our investigation continue to exist,” she added. “New Mexico’s children deserve a child welfare system that acts with urgency, competence, and accountability.”

AFPI said the reported border dropoff is not an isolated failure, but part of a larger crisis under state leadership.

“This did not happen in a vacuum,” Torres said. “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,” he added. “It is the predictable result of a system that has gone unaccountable for far too long.”

For a department already under fire over child deaths, abuse investigations, staffing problems, and years of scandal, the latest report raises another disturbing question: how did a 15-year-old American citizen end up stranded at a Texas border crossing after New Mexico’s child welfare agency closed his case?

As Torres put it, “New Mexicans deserve answers, and this child deserves justice.”

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ABQ priest’s church sign targets woman who called out woke messages

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An Albuquerque Catholic parish already known for provocative political displays is facing new scrutiny after its church letterboard appeared to single out a local woman by name after she repeatedly criticized the parish’s left-wing messaging.

The latest controversy centers on Saint Therese Parish, also known as the Shrine of the Little Flower, on Fourth Street in Albuquerque. A photo of the parish sign shows the message: “RACISM GRAVE SIN AGAINST GODS LOVE KATRINA G.”

The apparent reference was to Katrina Griego, who has posted multiple photos of the parish’s letterboard signs on Facebook while criticizing what she described as a “woke” priest using a Catholic church for political messaging.

In one May 30 Facebook post, Griego wrote, “So sad to see this sign at a Catholic Church. This ‘woke’ priest continues to post anti ICE messages. He wants us to boycott these restaurants because they support ICE.”

Her post included a photo of a Saint Therese sign reading, “EARLY VOTING NOW ICE STILL MEETS FRONTIER – GOLDEN PRIDE,” appearing to reference the popular Albuquerque restaurants Frontier and Golden Pride. Frontier welcomes law enforcement officers, including ICE, to its restaurant, as we previously reported.

Another post from March showed the parish sign reading, “BLESSED LENT & RAMADAN.” Griego wrote, “Saw this sign today at St Therese CATHOLIC Church in Albuquerque. This ‘so called’ priest is out of control and needs to be removed.”

In January, Griego posted photos of signs reading, “NO ONE IS ILLEGAL IN GODS REALM” and “WE ARE RENEE GOOD / SOMOS RENEE GOOD,” writing that she did not believe such messages were appropriate for a Catholic church.

The political messaging has continued. Another photo provided to Piñon Post shows a Saint Therese sign reading, “NO KINGS IN USA ONLY JESUS,” an apparent reference to the anti-Trump “No Kings” left-wing protest slogan.

The situation escalated when Griego said she went to the church to photograph the sign that named her. In a Facebook Live video, Griego claimed she had a confrontation at Saint Therese and said, “I got maced.”

Griego said Rev. Vincent Paul Chávez came out shortly after she arrived and recognized her.

“He’s like, ‘Oh you’re Katrina, you’re the one that’s always taking pictures of my signs and taking video,’” Griego said in the video. She claimed Chávez said she had been “living rent-free” in his head and accused her of being “racist” and “probably a Trumpster too.”

Griego also alleged that a man she identified as Timothy Fresquez, whom she described as a groundskeeper, approached her afterward.

“He started saying that I was a f—— b—- and that I was evil,” Griego said.

She also said police told her they were going to file charges against Fresquez. Piñon Post has not independently verified whether charges were filed.

At one point in the live video, Griego said she was staying live because she feared the priest.

“I’m staying live because the priest of this church, he physically attacks people,” she said.

The controversy also drew attention from local activist Marcie May, who posted on X, “Love thy neighbor? Not if you don’t bow your knee to Islam!” May wrote that Saint Therese Parish “singles out Katrina [G]riego” after Griego had called on the parish to “align with the Catholic Doctrine.”

Chávez has been at the center of political controversy before.

In 2020, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Archbishop John C. Wester told Chávez to remove a display in front of the church that depicted a child in a cage under a foil blanket, paired with a message about children separated from parents at the border.

The Journal reported that parents at the nearby Saint Therese Catholic School were upset about the display and had threatened to disenroll their children. Wester reportedly asked Chávez to remove the cage and “refrain from any contentious, controversial and provocative signs.”

Chávez told the Journal he was “dumbfounded” by the request and defended the display as symbolic art meant to start a conversation. He also described the country’s border-separation policy as a “grave collective social sin for every American.”

The Journal noted at the time that Chávez had used the parish marquee for messages including “Black Lives Matter,” praise for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the CDC, and “No human is illegal in God’s realm.”

Now, years later, the church’s public sign is again at the center of controversy — this time not just for political messaging, but for appearing to call out a private citizen by name.

For many, the question is no longer merely whether a Catholic parish should be used to promote left-wing political causes.

It is whether a priest should use an official church letterboard to publicly shame a woman who criticized him.

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Dem lt. governor fight gets ugly as socialists, Jane Fonda jump in

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The New Mexico Democratic Party’s scramble to replace Maggie Toulouse Oliver as its lieutenant governor nominee is turning into an ugly intraparty brawl, with state Sen. Harold Pope backed by Democratic Socialists while Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard is getting help from Deb Haaland, Jane Fonda, and fellow Democrats attacking Pope’s record.

The fight is now centered on roughly 500 members of the Democratic Party of New Mexico’s State Central Committee, who are set to vote July 25 through July 29 on who will join Haaland on the November ticket.

The vacancy came after Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico’s Democrat secretary of state, dropped out of the race due to health reasons after overwhelmingly winning the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Pope, an Albuquerque Democrat, lost that primary to Toulouse Oliver by roughly 60 percentage points.

Now, despite being crushed by Toulouse Oliver, Pope is trying to convince party insiders to give him another shot. Garcia Richard, meanwhile, has the public backing of Haaland, who endorsed the land commissioner to be her running mate.

The race has become so heated that Democrats are now openly attacking each other.

State Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque, released a video Monday standing outside Chaparral Elementary School in Pope’s district and blasted Pope for allegedly failing to direct any of his annual capital outlay money to the school.

“Hey everybody, State Senator Mo Maestas from District 26,” Maestas said in the video. “I’m actually standing just north of my district in District 23, represented by Senator Harold Pope.”

Maestas said he and Pope each receive $4.1 million in discretionary spending.

“APS and all our public schools ask for various projects,” Maestas said. “I make sure that we fully fund the public schools in my district. Unfortunately, with $4.1 million in discretionary spending, Harold Pope gave this elementary school nothing.”

“He didn’t give Chaparral Elementary School a dime,” Maestas continued. “All they asked for was $87,000. It would have made up approximately 4% of his discretionary spending. So I don’t understand.”

Maestas then contrasted Pope with Garcia Richard.

“Harold Pope is running for Lieutenant Governor,” Maestas said. “There’s another candidate who has raised $3 billion for public education in this state. Harold Pope, on the other hand, did not give his elementary school a dime.”

In comments to Source NM, Maestas was even more direct, saying he filmed the video because he was frustrated with Pope presenting himself as a “progressive deity” while allegedly failing to fund schools in his own district.

“I mean, that’s just bread-and-butter government,” Maestas said. “It’s just indicative of the contradiction that surrounds his candidacy. When you compare their accomplishments, there’s no comparison.”

Then Maestas took aim at the far-left flank of his own party.

“So instead of Deb Haaland and Stephanie Garcia Richard barnstorming the state this past month, there’s this power grab by the ultra-left, which does not serve the party or the state,” he said.

Pope pushed back, telling Source NM that Maestas’ attack shows his campaign may be gaining ground with State Central Committee members.

“When a senator within my caucus is on the attack like this, I think it shows that we’re probably doing well, when the mudslinging and things like this happen,” Pope said.

Pope said he had other priorities for his capital outlay money, including a road-widening project and law enforcement.

But the socialist wing of the party is clearly lining up behind him.

The Albuquerque chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America held a small news conference outside the state Democratic Party headquarters to endorse Pope. Both the Albuquerque and Santa Fe DSA chapters are now backing him.

Albuquerque DSA co-chair Nikhil Ananda said Pope is the candidate who reflects the party’s grassroots left.

“The senator is not just the choice that reflects the values of New Mexicans. I think he’s also the electable choice,” Ananda said. “But regardless of our preferences, I just want to make sure that the State Central Committee provides an election process and a decision-making process that reflects the conscience of delegates and their perspective on what’s best for New Mexicans.”

Garcia Richard’s camp got its own celebrity boost when liberal actress and environmental activist Jane Fonda jumped into the race on her behalf.

“It’s about damn time we have two bad-ass women leading New Mexico and protecting the state’s natural beauty for all New Mexicans,” Fonda wrote in an email to Garcia Richard supporters.

Garcia Richard did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment Tuesday.

The spectacle puts the Democratic Party’s internal divisions on full display. On one side, Pope is trying to ride support from the socialist left after losing badly in the primary. On the other, Garcia Richard is leaning on Haaland, environmentalists, and establishment Democrats who argue she has a stronger record.

For New Mexico Republicans, the infighting is a gift.

The Democrats’ lieutenant governor race now features a rejected primary candidate backed by socialists, a land commissioner endorsed by Jane Fonda, and one Democrat senator publicly accusing another of failing basic “bread-and-butter government.”

The SCC vote has not even begun yet.

But the mudslinging already has.

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NM woman pleads guilty in $4M Medicaid fraud scheme

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A Farmington woman has pleaded guilty in federal court after prosecutors say she helped carry out a years-long Medicaid fraud scheme involving fake and ineligible non-emergency medical transportation trips across New Mexico.

Dorothea Irving, 47, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Prosecutors say Irving worked with a non-emergency medical transportation company to submit millions of dollars in false claims to New Mexico Medicaid for trips that either did not happen or were not eligible for reimbursement.

The alleged scheme took place between 2020 and 2026, while Irving worked as a driver for a company that provided non-emergency medical transportation, commonly known as NEMT.

New Mexico Medicaid covers transportation for eligible Medicaid recipients who need help getting to non-emergency medical services, such as routine doctor appointments, when they do not have access to a personal vehicle or public transportation.

But according to court documents, Irving and others used the program as part of a multi-year fraud scheme.

Instead of simply transporting Medicaid beneficiaries to legitimate medical appointments, Irving, the company, its owner, employees, and other drivers submitted false trip records claiming that Irving or her children were Medicaid beneficiaries who needed transportation. Prosecutors say the false records included trips that never happened, claims that Irving acted as an attendant for her children on their own trips, and paperwork in which drivers falsely claimed to have transported one another to appointments.

Federal prosecutors said those records were used to disguise the fact that drivers were actually driving themselves.

In many cases, the fraudulent trip records involved Irving, other drivers, or minor children supposedly traveling long distances across New Mexico to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

The DOJ said the NEMT company then used the false trip records to submit millions of dollars in fraudulent claims to New Mexico Medicaid. In some cases, the company allegedly claimed each passenger in a vehicle had taken a separate trip, multiplying the amount billed to taxpayers.

For trips involving Irving and her children as the supposed Medicaid recipients without transportation, the company submitted approximately $3,957,788 in fraudulent claims and received approximately $4,142,942 from Medicaid, according to the Justice Department.

Irving herself received approximately $980,901 from the company over four years of the scheme.

The guilty plea marks another major Medicaid fraud case in New Mexico, where taxpayer-funded programs have repeatedly drawn scrutiny over waste, fraud, and weak oversight. The case also highlights how programs intended to serve vulnerable patients can be exploited when providers and insiders manipulate billing records.

Irving faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. Her sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after review of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legal factors.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the New Mexico Medicaid Fraud Control Bureau.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division; FBI Albuquerque Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris; HHS-OIG Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows; IRS-CI Acting Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of the Phoenix Field Office; and New Mexico Medicaid Fraud Control Bureau Director Jessica Randall.

Trial Attorney Lauren Randell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lewis for the District of New Mexico are prosecuting the case.

The DOJ noted that the case falls under its broader effort to crack down on fraud against federal benefit programs. In April, the department announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which it described as “laser-focused” on investigating and prosecuting fraud against the American people.

That work supports President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a government-wide effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance targeting fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs.

Since 2007, the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants accused of collectively billing federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.

For New Mexico taxpayers, the Farmington case is another reminder that Medicaid fraud is not a victimless crime. Every dollar siphoned through false claims is money taken from a program meant to help people who actually need care.

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MLG boasts thousands traveled to NM for abortions

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is openly celebrating New Mexico’s role as an abortion destination, boasting in a new social media post that more than 11,500 patients received abortion services in the state in 2024.

For pro-life New Mexicans, the post was not a point of pride. It was a chilling reminder of how aggressively the Democrat governor has worked to turn the state into one of the nation’s most permissive abortion hubs.

“At a time when reproductive health care access continues to disappear across the country, New Mexico is still holding the door open,” Lujan Grisham wrote on X. “We’ve worked to protect patients, support providers and preserve access to care.”

She then touted the number.

“Those efforts helped make New Mexico a trusted destination for care, with more than 11,500 patients receiving abortion services in 2024, including thousands who traveled from states where access was severely restricted,” the governor wrote.

In other words, while many states have moved to protect unborn children after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Lujan Grisham is bragging that New Mexico has become a magnet for abortion.

The governor framed the issue as “healthcare access,” writing that protecting access means ensuring people can get care “when they need it” and continuing to invest in providers and facilities across the state.

But critics say the numbers represent thousands of unborn lives ended in New Mexico — many from women brought in from states that chose stronger protections for babies.

The governor’s video accompanying the post was just as revealing.

“Every woman in America, every child, every family, everyone is worth standing up for,” Lujan Grisham said.

She then praised Planned Parenthood and tied abortion access to democracy and equality.

“It’s more than making sure that women’s lives are saved and access to life-saving care and freedom and choice is protected for everyone,” the governor said. “It is about restoring a country to a democracy that recognizes we must have equality at our doorstep.”

She closed with a slogan.

“And it’s why not just for Planned Parenthood, I’m wearing pink,” Lujan Grisham said. “Because pink is power. I am clear about that.”

The remarks come as New Mexico continues to occupy an extreme position on abortion policy. Unlike many states, New Mexico imposes no gestational limit on abortion, meaning the procedure remains legal throughout pregnancy under state law.

Lujan Grisham and legislative Democrats have also worked to shield abortion providers and patients from out-of-state investigations and to block local governments from restricting abortion. The state has invested taxpayer dollars into expanding abortion infrastructure, including in southern New Mexico, where officials have openly acknowledged the goal of serving patients from states such as Texas and Oklahoma.

That is the part Democrats rarely say plainly.

New Mexico is not merely preserving abortion access for residents. Under Lujan Grisham, the state is helping build an abortion pipeline for women traveling from other states where voters and lawmakers have chosen more pro-life laws.

Abortion-rights groups describe that as compassion. Pro-life New Mexicans see it as the industrialization of abortion, subsidized and celebrated by the state’s highest elected official.

The contrast could not be clearer.

At a time when New Mexico faces rampant child poverty, failing schools, violent crime, fentanyl deaths, and a shortage of medical providers, the governor is celebrating the state’s growing abortion numbers as a success story.

Her post did not mourn the thousands of unborn children whose lives ended. It did not acknowledge pro-life New Mexicans who believe every child deserves protection. It did not mention the moral weight of making New Mexico a destination for late-term abortion.

Instead, Lujan Grisham treated the numbers like an achievement.

For the governor and New Mexico Democrats, more abortions apparently mean more “access.”

For pro-life New Mexicans, it means something far darker: thousands of unborn babies killed, with the governor taking a victory lap.

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AG Torrez seizes school discipline report to push woke reforms

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New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is using a new state report on school discipline in Gallup-McKinley County Schools to push a broader left-wing reform agenda, calling for changes to how schools punish students and urging lawmakers to give his office more power to investigate alleged civil rights violations.

The report, released by the New Mexico Department of Justice, claims Gallup-McKinley schools have “substantial racial disparities” in suspensions and other discipline practices affecting Native American and Hispanic students.

According to reporting from New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica, the investigation found that Indigenous students lose eight to 10 times more classroom days to suspension than white students, while Hispanic students lose three to four times as many.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools is one of the largest geographically sprawling school districts in the state and serves part of the Navajo Nation. It also has the largest Native American student population of any public school district in the country.

Torrez ordered the investigation in 2023 after earlier reporting by the same outlets claimed Native students in New Mexico were expelled at higher rates than other students. The reporting said Gallup-McKinley had about a quarter of New Mexico’s Native students but accounted for at least three-quarters of Native student expulsions during the four school years ending in 2020.

Former Gallup-McKinley Superintendent Mike Hyatt previously dismissed those claims as “completely false,” arguing the findings were tied to data-entry errors and the district’s broad definition of expulsion.

But Torrez’s investigators rejected that explanation, writing that neither the data issues nor the definition of expulsion accounted for the racial disparities found in the district.

Now, the attorney general’s office is calling on the district to “acknowledge the facts” and work with the community on what the report described as “excessive reliance on exclusionary and discriminatory discipline.”

The recommendations read like a wish list for progressive education reformers.

The report urges Gallup-McKinley to more clearly define infractions, narrow discipline ranges, make punishments more “proportional,” limit suspensions, and adopt alternatives such as “restorative justice.”

One example cited was “talking circles,” where students discuss how their behavior affected others, why they broke a rule, and what different choices they could have made.

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission made similar recommendations in a March 2026 report accusing the district of discrimination. Commission Chair Wendy Greyeyes said neighboring districts already use some alternatives, though she acknowledged Gallup-McKinley may face challenges rebuilding trust with students and families.

The attorney general’s report warned that unless the district changes course, “children in and around Gallup, along with their families and communities, will remain negatively affected by educational, social, and emotional challenges that stem from the District’s current practices.”

Investigators also argued that suspensions do harm beyond academics, saying students removed from school can lose access to free meals, extracurriculars, clubs, and volunteer opportunities.

The report pointed to national research linking suspensions and expulsions to lower academic achievement, greater contact with the criminal justice system, isolation, poor health, and lower wages.

The findings come as schools across New Mexico continue struggling with classroom behavior, academic failure, truancy, and safety concerns. But instead of focusing primarily on restoring order and helping teachers maintain discipline, Torrez’s office is leaning into the increasingly common left-wing argument that discipline disparities are proof of systemic discrimination.

The report also accused district leadership of denying problems and relying on flawed counter-analysis.

“Instead of taking steps to rectify these problems, leadership denied that they exist and pushed a misleading and flawed counter-analysis,” the report said.

Investigators further claimed the district provided a contract auditor with discipline data that was “inexplicably different” from what it had reported to state and federal education officials, with thousands of records allegedly missing.

Gallup-McKinley Superintendent Jvanna Hanks II said the district is reviewing the report.

“I am leading a period of transition that prioritizes community voices and renews our focus on every student,” Hanks wrote in a statement. “The School District will be using this report and current student data as part of our review. Our focus is that students should be in school, supported in school, and treated fairly in school.”

But Torrez’s ambitions appear to go beyond one district.

The report calls on state lawmakers and the New Mexico Public Education Department to strengthen statewide oversight of student discipline. It also recommends annual public audits of school discipline data.

Anjana Samant, one of the report’s authors and a deputy director at the New Mexico Department of Justice, said such audits are needed to prevent disparities from becoming as “extreme and systemic as in Gallup-McKinley.”

The report also urges lawmakers to revive legislation that would have given the attorney general’s office more authority to investigate and “identify and root out” civil rights violations. That bill passed in 2023, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham allowed it to die without her signature through a pocket veto.

A spokesperson for the governor said she stands by that decision, citing concerns about whether the legislation “would have trumped federal student privacy protections and allowed the AG to access confidential student records.”

For Torrez, the Gallup-McKinley report gives him a new platform to push for more power, more oversight, and more race-focused intervention in New Mexico schools.

For parents and teachers, the question is whether these reforms will actually make classrooms safer and more functional — or simply make school discipline even harder in the name of woke ideology.

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NM Dems panic after Trump election integrity speech, release of docs.

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New Mexico Democrats erupted online after President Donald Trump announced the declassification and release of election-related intelligence documents, using the moment to accuse him of lying, undermining democracy, and trying to “rig” future elections.

Trump used a prime-time White House address to unveil what his administration described as newly released intelligence tied to election vulnerabilities, foreign influence, voter data, and election security. The White House posted materials under an “Election Integrity” page, including sections on electronic voting and ballot-counting systems, China’s alleged acquisition and use of American voter data, a Michigan voter-registration investigation, and noncitizens on voter rolls.

Trump also urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, an election-integrity bill that has become a major priority for Republicans.

But New Mexico’s federal Democrats responded with near-uniform outrage, dismissing the documents and framing the speech as an attack on democracy ahead of the midterms.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján blasted Trump’s address in a lengthy post on X.

“If you didn’t catch Donald Trump’s incoherent ramblings tonight, here’s what you need to know: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Fair and square,” Luján wrote. “He’s still selling the same lies that led to a violent insurrection five years ago.”

Luján then claimed Trump was trying to “rig” the election system by supporting the SAVE Act.

“This administration has only made life harder and more expensive for American families,” Luján continued. “Now, he’s ordering Congressional Republicans to rig our election system with the SAVE Act in a desperate attempt to hold onto power.”

He added, “Every American must stand up and call out these lies for what they are. I will always fight for our rights and our democracy.”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, an Albuquerque Democrat, posted repeatedly about Trump’s speech, taking aim at both the president and the timing of the document release.

“Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Period,” Stansbury wrote.

She added, “And, yet he STILL cannot accept the facts. Tonight he’s poised to address the nation with a replay of his greatest election denialism hits. But make no mistake—his motives are much more insidious as we head into the November mid-term elections—as he seeks to cast doubt over the integrity of our election system.”

Stansbury told supporters to “continue to organize, mobilize, and vote like the future of our democracy depends on it—because it does.”

In another post, she appeared to applaud broadcast networks for their handling of Trump’s remarks, writing, “Good for ABC and NBC!”

Stansbury also floated suspicion about the timing of the documents.

“Anyone else find it suspicious that the White House is releasing a bunch of ‘newly discovered’ findings concerning the 2020 election weeks after they conducted mass firings of career intelligence officers?” she wrote.

She later added, “Trump is scared of losing the midterms. Don’t believe the lies. Our elections are safe and secure. Make your voice loud and clear this November at the polls. Democracy will prevail.”

Stansbury also reposted CNN reporter Zachary Cohen, who wrote that the documents “largely discuss vulnerabilities that have been known for years” and claimed none of the declassified information supported the claim that past election results were manipulated by foreign interference or fraud “in a way that would’ve changed the outcome.”

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, another far-left New Mexico Democrat, accused Trump of pushing voter suppression.

“Trump doesn’t care about you or your needs,” she wrote. “He’s still mad that he lost the election in 2020.”

She claimed Trump “knows Americans are tired of high prices and forever wars,” but instead wants to “change our democracy — purge eligible voters from voter rolls, push a voter suppression bill, and scare you.”

“By the way, New Mexico is number 1 in election integrity!” Leger Fernández added.

Sen. Martin Heinrich also weighed in, accusing Trump of using “manufactured distractions.”

“Enough with the manufactured distractions, made up lies, and rewritten history. Lower costs,” Heinrich wrote.

He attached a graphic claiming Trump’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history” and said there was “no evidence that votes were changed or ‘flipped.’”

Heinrich’s graphic continued: “Trump’s claims tonight aren’t about election security. They’re about a sore loser who refuses to accept responsibility for rising costs and a failing economy, trying to lay the groundwork for claiming the next election is rigged if he doesn’t like the outcome.”

Rep. Gabe Vasquez also used the speech to attack Trump on costs.

“New Mexicans are suffering from the President’s failed economic policy — from skyrocketing gas prices to higher grocery costs to inflated healthcare — and the President is still focused on denying the 2020 election,” Vasquez wrote.

“The President needs to focus on lowering costs, not meddling with the midterms and jamming a voter disenfranchisement bill through Congress,” he added. “New Mexicans see right through it.”

Trump’s claims have drawn pushback from China, which called the allegations “entirely fabricated.” But the president did not claim China changed votes or altered the final election result. Instead, he argued the new materials show foreign influence efforts, vulnerabilities in election infrastructure, and alleged internal suppression of information that should have been disclosed.

That distinction did not stop New Mexico Democrats from launching into a coordinated online meltdown, with nearly every member of the state’s all-Democrat federal delegation rushing to accuse Trump of lying, attacking democracy, or trying to suppress voters.

The reaction shows just how aggressively Democrats are trying to frame any Republican-backed election reform as a threat to democracy, even when the debate centers on election security, voter-roll accuracy, foreign influence, and confidence in the system.

For Trump and Republicans, the newly released documents are evidence that election integrity concerns deserve serious scrutiny.

For New Mexico Democrats, even discussing those concerns is apparently enough to trigger a full-blown panic.

NM Dems panic after Trump election integrity speech, release of docs. Read More »

NM Dems demand raw Epstein files with graphic child sex abuse material

12 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

New Mexico Democrats are escalating their fight with the U.S. Department of Justice over Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch records, demanding access to unredacted files even as federal officials warn that handing over millions of unredacted documents could violate court orders, federal law, and protections for victims and witnesses.

The public clash centers on New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s revived criminal investigation into Epstein’s former 7,500-acre ranch near Santa Fe, where court documents and accusers have alleged Epstein sexually abused girls and women.

Torrez, a Democrat, has accused the DOJ of stonewalling the state’s investigation by refusing to provide unredacted records that New Mexico investigators say they need to identify survivors, witnesses, and possible co-conspirators.

But the DOJ says the demand is not so simple — and the material at issue is not ordinary paperwork.

In Epstein-related cases, unredacted records can contain the most sensitive material imaginable: victim names, addresses, identifying details, witness information, sealed investigative records, and potentially child sexual abuse material, commonly called child pornography. Such files may also include graphic evidence, images, descriptions, or accounts involving minors being raped or sexually abused — exactly the type of material federal law and court orders are designed to keep from broader disclosure.

That is the backdrop of the fight now being waged by New Mexico Democrats, who are demanding records in unredacted form despite the DOJ’s insistence that it cannot simply turn over everything without violating legal protections.

According to reporting on the dispute, a Justice Department spokesperson rejected New Mexico’s claim that federal officials were refusing to cooperate, calling the accusation “false.”

“Federal law, court orders and privacy protections for victims and witnesses do not allow us to release millions of unredacted documents, regardless of any deadline set by NMDOJ,” the DOJ spokesperson said. “We will continue to follow federal law and the court orders that are in place.”

The spokesperson added, “To capitulate to their demands would be to break federal law. Is that what the NM AG is suggesting?”

That warning has not stopped Torrez from turning up the pressure.

Torrez recently told acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche that despite “verbal assurances of cooperation from the USDOJ,” state investigators had not received access to the requested documents and had received “no substantive response.” He warned that if records are not provided by July 31, New Mexico will consider the request denied and “pursue all available legal remedies.”

The New Mexico Department of Justice also posted on X that officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had informed the state they “will NOT cooperate and will not support the only active criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.”

The dispute places New Mexico at the center of the national Epstein files fight — but with a major complication: the files reportedly include sensitive victim information, court-protected material, and other content that federal officials say cannot legally be handed over in raw, unredacted form.

In a separate court fight over Epstein records, the DOJ has defended redactions by arguing that many of the withheld details protect the identities and privacy of victims. Federal officials have also warned that handwritten FBI notes and other investigative materials carry a heightened risk of exposing personally identifiable information.

The Justice Department has reportedly released about 3.5 million pages of Epstein investigative materials while withholding roughly 2.5 million additional pages. DOJ officials say the remaining records are protected largely to safeguard victims and sensitive government interests.

The issue reached Capitol Hill this week when U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., pressed Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Heinrich pushed Clayton to commit to providing the information requested by Torrez. Clayton said his office was willing to work with New Mexico officials but noted that some records are subject to court protective orders.

“My folks, I think as we speak, are seeking dialog with the attorney general to see if we can reach an accommodation that is consistent with those protective orders,” Clayton said.

Heinrich said he believed redacted names could be important to New Mexico’s probe.

“I think it is quite clear that it is likely that there are survivors, witnesses and co-conspirators whose names have been redacted that are necessary for him to effectively complete that investigation,” Heinrich said, referring to Torrez.

At the same time, Heinrich also acknowledged the need for caution, pointing to a prior incident in which the DOJ released some Epstein victims’ personal information.

Following the revelations, state Rep. John Block, who also serves as the Piñon Post‘s publisher, commented via X, “It’s sickening that radicals are demanding the fully un-redacted files (including personal victim information and child p*rn) — just to make political attacks — despite putting these victims in harm’s way. THEY LITERALLY WANT PHOTOS + VIDEOS OF KIDS BEING RAPED FULLY RELEASED. It’s vile and unconscionable.”

The Journal’s report also noted that a fundraising firm emailed a lunch invitation to Jeffrey Epstein on Heinrich’s behalf in 2012, a detail that adds another layer of political awkwardness as Heinrich now pushes for federal action on Epstein records.

Torrez’s office was not satisfied with Clayton’s public assurances.

“Words spoken to a Senate committee mean nothing if they don’t show up in writing to this office,” Lauren Rodriguez, the attorney general’s chief of staff, said in a statement. She reiterated the July 31 deadline before the state considers additional legal action.

The renewed Zorro Ranch investigation follows years of unanswered questions. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide. New Mexico previously investigated allegations tied to the ranch, but no state charges were filed.

Piñon Post has previously reported on disturbing questions surrounding the ranch, including Epstein-linked references to a proposed “Zorro Smiles” dental setup, medical equipment, private ambulance plans, and allegations that victims were abused on the property. During Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2021 trial, Epstein accuser Annie Farmer testified that Maxwell abused her at Zorro Ranch when Farmer was 16.

State and local investigators searched the ranch in March after Torrez reopened the criminal investigation, but no results from that search have been publicly disclosed.

Now, the fight is shifting from the ranch itself to the records federal officials have long controlled.

New Mexico Democrats say they need unredacted files to pursue the only active criminal investigation into Epstein’s alleged crimes at Zorro Ranch.

The DOJ says releasing millions of unredacted documents could violate federal law, court orders, and victim privacy protections — including protections against exposing child sexual abuse material, victim identities, and graphic evidence involving minors.

That leaves one major question: are New Mexico Democrats demanding the records needed to finally investigate Zorro Ranch — or are they pushing federal officials to hand over sensitive victim material the law says must remain protected?

NM Dems demand raw Epstein files with graphic child sex abuse material Read More »

New Mexico voter roll fight may not be over

29 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

A federal judge has dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking New Mexico’s detailed voter registration list, handing Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver a courtroom win — at least for now — in a high-stakes fight over election integrity, voter privacy, and federal oversight.

U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera on Tuesday tossed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Toulouse Oliver, rejecting the DOJ’s demand for an electronic copy of New Mexico’s statewide voter registration list.

The case centered on whether the federal government could force New Mexico to hand over detailed voter data, including names, dates of birth, residential addresses, state driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of registrants’ Social Security numbers.

The DOJ filed the lawsuit in December after Toulouse Oliver refused to comply with a September demand letter from the Civil Rights Division seeking the records as part of a review of New Mexico’s compliance with federal election law.

Toulouse Oliver celebrated the dismissal Tuesday, framing the ruling as a victory for voter privacy.

“Federal and state legal guardrails on social security numbers and dates of birth exist for the identity protection of every voter in our state,” Toulouse Oliver said in a statement.

“I absolutely will not risk any disclosure of voters’ private data, as it could carry very real and severe consequences for the personal lives of New Mexicans participating in our democratic process,” she added.

The DOJ had argued that the voter records were necessary to ensure New Mexico is properly maintaining its voter rolls under federal law, including the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

As Piñon Post previously reported, the Justice Department said federal law gives the attorney general authority to demand election records and that such records “shall, upon demand in writing… be made available for inspection, reproduction, and copying.”

The DOJ also argued that federal law supersedes conflicting state law and that the requested records would be maintained under Privacy Act protections.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon previously defended the broader push for voter data, saying, “Our federal elections laws ensure every American citizen may vote freely and fairly.”

“States that continue to defy federal voting laws interfere with our mission of ensuring that Americans have accurate voter lists as they go to the polls, that every vote counts equally, and that all voters have confidence in election results,” Dhillon said at the time. “At this Department of Justice, we will not stand for this open defiance of federal civil rights laws.”

But Herrera found that the DOJ had not done enough to justify its demand.

“Nowhere does the DOJ articulate any factual suggestion that New Mexico has violated the NVRA or HAVA,” Herrera wrote, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

The judge also found that the department failed to show New Mexico had a pattern of noncompliance with federal election laws.

The ruling places New Mexico among a growing list of states where federal judges have rejected similar DOJ lawsuits seeking unredacted voter registration records. Herrera noted that DOJ sent similar demand letters to 48 states and the District of Columbia, and sued multiple states that refused to comply.

Still, the legal fight may not be over.

The DOJ has already appealed several similar losses in other states, and the issue appears likely to continue moving through the federal courts. In other voter-roll cases, the department has argued that it needs unredacted voter data to check for duplicate registrations, deceased voters, noncitizens, and other potential list-maintenance problems.

Piñon Post previously reported that DOJ attorney James Thomas Tucker described the effort in court as a “trust but verify approach,” saying the federal government was seeking to understand how states maintain voter rolls.

That argument remains central to the case. Supporters of the DOJ’s effort say accurate voter rolls are basic election integrity and that states should not be able to block federal oversight by invoking state privacy rules. Critics, including Toulouse Oliver and left-wing voting groups that intervened in the case, say the request is too broad and risks exposing sensitive voter information.

For now, Toulouse Oliver has won the first major round in New Mexico.

But given the national scope of the litigation and the DOJ’s willingness to appeal similar rulings, Tuesday’s dismissal may not be the final word.

If the Justice Department appeals, the case would likely move to the Tenth Circuit, where the fight over how much authority federal officials have to inspect state voter rolls could continue.

The question at the center of the case remains unresolved nationally: can the federal government demand full voter registration records to verify election-law compliance, or can states refuse when they say voter privacy is at risk?

In New Mexico, that question just produced a win for Toulouse Oliver.

Whether it survives appeal is another matter.

New Mexico voter roll fight may not be over Read More »

Vasquez attacks pro-life Republicans in abortion screed

28 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez is once again putting abortion at the center of his campaign message, using a newly published Albuquerque Journal opinion column to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and attack Republicans who support limits on abortion.

Vasquez, a far-left Democrat who represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, framed the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a national crisis and accused “MAGA extremists” of waging an ongoing campaign against abortion.

“On June 24, 2022, time stood still for many Americans,” Vasquez wrote, referring to the day the U.S. Supreme Court issued Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe and returned abortion law to the states.

“Four years later, women are still paying the price,” he continued.

The column offers a clear look at where Vasquez stands on one of the most divisive issues in the country: unashamedly backing abortion up-to-birth. Rather than supporting even modest limits on abortion, Vasquez used the piece to call for broader federal protections and to back the Women’s Health Protection Act, a Democrat-backed proposal intended to establish unlimited abortion nationwide.

“I believe every woman deserves the freedom to make her own healthcare decisions in consultation with her doctor and guided by her own faith and values — not the government’s,” Vasquez wrote, although he, alongside many of his Democrat colleagues, likely has trouble defining what a “woman” is.

He also argued that abortion restrictions are not only about abortion, but about broader government control.

“This is not only an attack on women — it’s also a reminder that the government can take away anyone’s fundamental freedoms when power is placed in the wrong hands,” he wrote, although he is for a widespread government takeover of other fundamentals, such as gun rights and religious liberty.

For many, the op-ed reads as another example of Vasquez aligning himself with the national abortion lobby while trying to present the issue in softer language. He repeatedly referred to abortion as “healthcare,” “privacy,” “bodily autonomy,” and “reproductive freedom,” while attacking Republicans as extremists.

“MAGA extremists have continued their assault on women’s reproductive rights through the courts and Congress,” Vasquez claimed.

He specifically accused Republicans of blocking mailed mifepristone, targeting telehealth abortion, and trying to “put the government in control of women’s healthcare experiences.”

The comments come as New Mexico has already become one of the most permissive abortion states in the country. KFF listed New Mexico’s abortion policy as having “no gestational limits” as of April 2026, and other abortion access trackers similarly describe abortion as legal throughout pregnancy in the state.

New Mexico Democrats have also worked to block local governments from restricting abortion. In 2025, the New Mexico Supreme Court struck down local abortion restrictions in conservative communities such as Hobbs and Clovis, reinforcing the state’s broad abortion-access framework.

Yet Vasquez’s op-ed suggests that current law still does not go far enough. He wrote that he remains committed to supporting the Women’s Health Protection Act, which abortion-rights supporters describe as federal legislation to “re-establish a nationwide right to access abortion care,” which attacks federalist principles that his party has cherry-picked to pretend to support in other circumstances, but apparently not in this one.

“I remain committed to protecting reproductive freedom,” Vasquez wrote. “I will continue my support for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions and ensure healthcare providers can continue offering safe, effective healthcare options.”

Vasquez also argued that women should have access to abortion “when in a time of need.”

“Restrictions on abortion create chaos and uncertainty,” he wrote. “Women deserve the right to receive abortion care, access contraceptives and obtain emergency reproductive healthcare when in a time of need.”

The op-ed closed with a direct political call to action, with Vasquez pledging to “hold extreme MAGA Republicans accountable.”

“This fight is not over,” he wrote.

For New Mexico voters, the piece is a reminder that Vasquez is not running away from the abortion issue. He is leaning into it.

While many New Mexicans support protections for women in medical emergencies and cases of rape or incest, Vasquez’s column goes far beyond those narrow exceptions. He is backing a national abortion agenda at a time when New Mexico already allows abortion with virtually no state-level gestational limit (up-to-birth) with no protections whatsoever for mothers, babies, or doctors.

That contrast is likely to remain a major issue in the 2026 race, especially in a district that includes conservative, rural, and faith-driven communities across southern New Mexico. But Vasquez’s message is clear: he wants abortion kept front and center. 

Vasquez attacks pro-life Republicans in abortion screed Read More »

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