On Monday in the House Health and Human Services Committee, state Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) presented H.B. 486, a bipartisan bill, which “would require that, when a child is taken into New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) protective custody by law enforcement because of suspected abuse or neglect, CYFD conduct a criminal background and search of the sex offender registry of the person to whom the child will be released, including the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian,” according to the bill’s analysis.
Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces) argued, “CYFD is not involved with every, you know, child that goes, you know, for medical care to the hospital and they then needs [sic] to be released to their parent that comes in.”
She claimed the bill was “too broad,” telling Rep. Lord, “Your bill is overreaching and saying any time a child comes into the custody of law enforcement.”
“This is being seen as unconstitutional for parents and making sure kids can go back to their family and have that reunification. With that, I will strongly oppose your bill,” she added.
Rep. Lord argued, “It’s for them to take a final look before they give that child back in that situation.”
State Rep. Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque), the chair of the committee, continued to erroneously claim that CYFD was mandated to remove a child from a family.
Lord responded, “That’s a simple question, Madam Chair. What I’m saying is that it mandates that they do the background check, and as I stated, they have lawyers, they have behaviorists, they have a team of people that have been working on the case while that child has been out of the parent’s custody, and then they can further make a decision. What I’m looking for is — in that gap —and I agree … that we should never, ever, ever in this lifetime place a child back with a sex offender. But if there’s a long enough gap, and in between that time, let’s say… one of the parents abused one of the other children sexually, we need to take that into consideration. I’m not saying mandating they can’t. I wouldn’t want them to ever in this lifetime, but we are saying they should do the background check before they release that child for the final step.”
“But the bill says ‘requiring,’” Chair Thomson clapped back, arguing that “requiring does not leave it up to CYFD,” arguing with Rep. Lord about the bill that “it is a mandate,” even though it is not.
Rep. Lord asked Thomson, “Do you want children to go back with sexual predators?”
Thomson then accused Lord of “interrupting” her during questioning and accusing her of breaking “decorum.”
Furious with Lord refusing to stand on the false narrative spun by the chairwoman, Thomson banged her gavel, with Lord replying, “I’m not going to listen to your gavel anyways. It’s mandated in there,” before being cut off by state Rep. Eleanor Chavez (D-Albuquerque), who made a motion to table.
“Exactly. Because you want children to go back into homes where they are going to be sexually abused. That’s exactly what I figured you were going to do because you don’t care about the children. Because you want the children to be sexually abused,” Rep. Lord responded.
Strangely, Chair Thomson claimed Rep. Lord was “auditioning for a TV show,”
Rep. Lord added, “Wow — insults by you. I’m so shocked by that. Talk about ‘decorum.’”
The Democrats on the committee moved on a party-line vote to kill the bill that would have protected children who are in the CYFD system from sexual predator family members.
Rep. Lord concluded after the vote, “I hope you all can live with putting children back into houses where they are going to be sexually abused,” with Thomson trying to shut her down again.
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Cyfd is beyond corrupt hopefully Jay block can get the reform bill through to strip cyfds power. This is why children are murdered and abused cyfd does not care it’s all about the money
i agree William. They are an evil trafficking organization motivated by money that the clintons set up so they could continue their evil deeds. They get money for removing children which is an obvious conflict of interest. stefani is a moron who needs to stop trying to give the state more power and uphold her oath and get rid of this unconstitutional organization. If we cut off the welfare then people wont breed to get money for having children and they will only have loving families.
What a circus at the Roundhouse and no wonder NOTHING is ever accomplished for the good of this state! Ridiculous!
Do Better New Mexico!
Our two Senators just voted against the Women’s Sports Bill. I guess they are in favor of biological males competing in women’s sports competitions.
I am so pleased that Rep. Lord represents my district in the State House. She has the “guts” to stick up for what is right. A majority of Dems in the NM State Legislature seem to have lost their minds in their leftist cloud.
Our Republican representatives in both the House and Senate try their damdiest to get things done but the DEMONcrats are hell bent on destroying this state as far as they can. If they don’t disband CYFD they more oversite is needed and they need to actually come out and do their jobs.
CYFD… is broke. If something is broke it needs fixing. It requires fixing. The DNC of NM says in every political session its not broke…The DNC keeps projecting CYFD might be bent… but its not broken and therefore since its not broken only bent it dosnt require fixing at all…
As long as the DNC controls this a**backwards State… CYFD will never be…fixed… and the DNC political Party of New Mexico will insure it will never be fixed.
what a bunch of clowns