A judge postponed a hearing Wednesday until a mother and her teenage son, who was sent to Mexico to live with her despite years of estrangement, have representation in the matter.
The teen, a U.S. citizen, was taken to the U.S.-Mexico border in July by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department and told, despite being 15 years old, to cross alone to reunite with his mother.
First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew postponed a hearing in which he was slated to consider a petition by the state Justice Department for a temporary restraining order against CYFD, forcing the child welfare agency to bring the boy, now 16, back to New Mexico.
The postponement came after Mathew expressed concerns that in order for him to make an informed decision about the child’s best interests, attorneys dedicated to working with the boy and his mother and representing their concerns in the situation should be involved in the case.
“I do have concerns … about his interests, and any ruling that I would make, whether it would be to deny the relief request or to grant the relief request, this child will be impacted by it, and his interests are not being represented,” Mathew said.
Eric Loman, an attorney representing CYFD, and Ben Osborn, an attorney for the Justice Department, largely agreed.
“I don’t know that we can go forward today, then, if you feel that the child’s interests are not being represented here,” Loman said.
But Osborn noted the Justice Department’s lawsuit also seeks decisions from Mathew on other issues, including a request for the judge to find that CYFD violates children’s rights through its methods of reuniting kids with parents who are not New Mexico residents. Granting that section of the lawsuit is essentially to tell CYFD: “Don’t do this again,” Osborn said. He requested that issue be considered separately.
Mathew asked Osborn to file an amended motion effectively separating the issues the Justice Department raised involving the teenager and his mother from the more general issues relating to CYFD’s practices.
In response to a question about whether the postponement compounded the Justice Department’s concerns over the boy’s safety, spokesperson Chelsea Pitvorec wrote in an email the agency welcomes “any and all advocacy and support services for this child, who is in this position because CYFD failed to appropriately advocate for this child when the law required it.”
“In addition to the child’s safety, we also look forward to a full airing of CYFD’s violations of law during this incident,” she wrote.
CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson responded that the boy is still with his mother, who is his legal guardian, and argued the state Justice Department’s legal actions are only causing more problems.
“The DOJ filed suit seeking the child’s return without any plan for where the child will live or who will take care of him or who would ensure that his medical, educational, and emotional needs are met. This uncertainty is inflicting continuing trauma,” Thompson wrote in an email. “The DOJ also did not object when CYFD reunited the 15-year-old’s two siblings with their mother in Mexico a few months ago, suggesting that this new statement is politically motivated and represents unnecessary exploitation of the child and his family.”
In early July, the state Justice Department’s lawsuit alleges, a CYFD employee drove the boy to El Paso and told him to cross into Mexico to meet his mother.
The boy started to cross, but then returned to the U.S., the lawsuit states, alleging that he then was forced to stay in a Texas youth homeless shelter for several days because CYFD refused to take him back. He was eventually escorted into Mexico to live with his mother later that month and has tried to run away from her at least once, the lawsuit adds.
The July 28 lawsuit accuses CYFD of abusing the boy’s constitutional rights, including by releasing him without making sufficient plans to ensure he is safe and receives medical care, failing to coordinate an escort into Mexico and abandoning him when he returned.
CYFD countered in a late August court filing that its decision to reunite mother and son was “was appropriate and required by law.” It called the state Justice Department’s petition to force the child welfare agency to bring the boy back “absurd and impossible,” given that neither CYFD nor Mathew have jurisdiction to force the teen’s return.
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
