More than 10,000 New Mexico kids have lost federal food assistance in last year, new analysis shows — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
More than 10,000 New Mexico children have lost federal food assistance benefits in the year since Congress enacted a sweeping spending bill, according to a new analysis from a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
The spending bill President Donald Trump signed last July imposed new work requirements and other burdens on households seeking food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It also included stiff penalties for states that have high rates of errors in implementing the program, causing states, including New Mexico, to quickly impose new paperwork requirements.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis released Tuesday says those new burdens on states and households have coincided with more than 1.5 million children nationwide losing their SNAP benefits, roughly one-third of the estimated 4.5 million people who lost SNAP since Congress passed the law.
The center’s analysis looked at the period between July 2025 and April 2026 and determined that roughly 18,000 New Mexicans lost SNAP in that period, including more than 10,000 children.
In a news conference Wednesday morning detailing their analysis, center leaders said the swift dropoff of SNAP recipients should compel Congress to delay penalties for states that don’t reduce errors by deadlines set in the law or to give states more funding to reduce errors.
“States are working hard to reduce their error rates, but they’re up against the wall,” Vice President for Food Assistance Ty Jones Cox said. “The law didn’t give them any time or resources to do so, so that creates an enormous incentive for states to slash their error rates by any means necessary, and that’s what we’re seeing: more paperwork, shorter certification periods, more red tape, even if it means eligible families lose benefits they’re entitled to.”
New Mexico could face a penalty of at least $150 million if it does not reduce its error rate from 16.8% — which is the third-highest in the nation — to less than 6% by October 2027.
The New Mexico Health Care Authority recently imposed new verification requirements for SNAP applicants’ incomes and household sizes, and the authority is working to improve its data collection and caseworker training to minimize the number of SNAP over- and underpayments made to SNAP recipients.
The center examined data from 19 states with readily available data regarding children enrolled in SNAP. New Mexico’s proportion of children who lost SNAP — 56% — over the last year was among the highest.
Health Care Authority officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Wednesday.
More-recent HCA data reviewed by Source NM shows that the trend in SNAP disenrollment has continued through June, with approximately 7,000 additional people losing SNAP between April and June. That HCA data does not specify how many of them are children.
The center’s analysts say they cannot identify whether lack of funding or new barriers on households is the primary driver in reducing SNAP enrollment. But they ruled out the possibility that SNAP households’ economic well-being have improved enough in the last year that they no longer need the food assistance.
“Grocery prices are still rising,” Jones Cox said. “Unemployment has been largely flat since before the law passed. Real wages have actually declined. People need food assistance today just as much as they did a year ago, and they’re simply being cut off from assistance as states scramble to limit their exposure.”
CYFD drops NM teen at Texas border crossing — Algernon D’Amassa, Albuquerque Journal
A 15-year-old Doña Ana County resident reportedly was removed from foster care by New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department on July 6 and left at a border crossing in El Paso.
Agency staff drove him across state lines to the Paso del Norte crossing to Ciudad Juárez, according to multiple sources familiar with the case.
There, at about 8:30 p.m., he was dropped off and told to meet his estranged mother in Mexico.
The child refused to cross the border and reportedly spent 10 days in a homeless shelter as Texas Child Protective Services assisted him. When CPS contacted CYFD, the agency reportedly refused to collect the child: His case had been closed and he was no longer in their jurisdiction.
The child was escorted to Juárez and united with his mother on Friday.
Local child welfare professionals familiar with the case said they worried for the child’s safety and questioned CYFD officers’ judgment, first in dismissing a substantiated abuse case against the mother and then, within hours, instructing the child to walk across a bridge and leave the United States carrying his belongings. He reportedly ran away almost immediately but has since been found.
In a statement Wednesday, the agency said, “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 Journal is not identifying the boy because he is a minor, nor other family members, to protect the child’s safety.
‘A REALLY TRAUMATIC TRANSITION’
He was born in New Mexico in 2010 to parents who were Mexican nationals. For nine years, the child lived with family friends described in court documents as godparents, along with two siblings.
According to court petitions that are publicly available, the father has been out of contact for several years, and the mother was named in a substantiated abuse claim against the child years prior. Those records and sources familiar with the case said the mother was recently arrested on a criminal charge and, earlier this year, deported to Mexico.
For reasons that are unclear, the godparents applied to be guardians for two of the siblings, but not the 15-year-old, who was placed in a temporary foster home.
At a July 6 custody hearing that was not a public proceeding, sources said CYFD moved to dismiss the abuse case, telling a judge it had no concerns about the mother and that the agency intended to unite the child with her, against the child’s wishes.
Responding to queries from the Journal, the head of New Mexico’s Office of the Child Advocate, Dawn Walters, said she became aware of the case after the July 6 drop-off and was in touch with Texas CPS and the child directly, up to Thursday of last week.
“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 said.
Walters said she has been in contact with CYFD staff as well as Texas CPS and the child himself to gather facts about what took place and to assess the child’s situation. Among her concerns were the child’s health conditions and need for prescription medication.
She has been out of contact with the child 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.”
Walters’ office is new, created by the state Legislature in 2025 as an independent child welfare watchdog attached to the state Department of Justice. Walters, an attorney who formerly worked at CYFD herself, was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in January and started on the job in March.
Maralyn Beck, executive director of New Mexico Child First Network, told the Journal the information she had gathered about the case suggested the child’s wishes had not been honored. She compared his expatriation to deporting a child and argued that any statements from CYFD about his welfare needed to be verified by the child himself.
None of the sources speaking with the Journal had had contact with the child since Friday.
Under state law, Beck said, “New Mexico identifies and recognizes that youth 14 and over have agency and should be able to share their wishes. That's why youth 14 and over get a youth attorney, not a guardian ad litem. This youth has made his wishes clear. 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.”
BALANCING UNIFICATION AND SAFETY
Federal and state laws require CYFD to reunite abused and neglected children with their families whenever possible, unless it conflicts with a child’s health and safety.
However, an investigative report by the New Mexico Department of Justice released in April 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.”
When the 220-page report was released, CYFD rejected claims that the agency put reunification over safety.
Lujan Grisham responded to the report at the time by saying it depicted the agency’s struggles prior to acting CYFD Secretary Valerie Sandoval’s leadership. The governor appointed Sandoval to the job in 2025. The Governor’s Office referred queries about this incident to CYFD.
"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,” DOJ Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez stated Wednesday.
“The circumstances surrounding this latest incident only reinforce what our report concluded: the systemic issues identified in our investigation continue to exist. New Mexico's children deserve a child welfare system that acts with urgency, competence, and accountability."
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not comment about the case.
CYFD stated that it had assessed the mother, including two home visits, “and determined her to be safe and appropriate for placement of the child.” It did not state when or where that assessment took place.
The agency also said it “had several conversations with this child about unification with his mother prior to the (July 6) hearing,” and it had 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 in its statement. “The department had no legal grounds to take custody and place him in foster care.”
CYFD ADDRESSES BORDER COSSING
The agency confirmed that its staff had escorted the boy to the border crossing but had no jurisdiction to cross an international border.
“The boy was released to walk over the bridge, the CYFD employee called the mother who said she’d Facetime back with the boy, but he never arrived on the Mexico side,” CYFD said in its statement. “He apparently crossed over several lanes of traffic and walked back into the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint and then fled into Texas.”
CYFD also stated that while the boy was staying in El Paso, the agency assisted him in refilling a medical prescription and later coordinated his passage into Mexico with the mother, the Mexican consulate, Texas DFPS and border law enforcement. The agency said the child declined to communicate with CYFD by that point.
“As of Monday … the boy was living with his mother,” the statement said.
Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.
Healthcare costs, not enrollment, driving New Mexico's rising Medicaid price tag — Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
With big federal healthcare funding changes looming, New Mexico’s spending on Medicaid beneficiaries has continued to rise and shows no signs of slowing down.
Specifically, the state’s average per-member cost for an individual enrolled in Medicaid has increased from $576 per month in 2020 to a projected $883 per month in the just-ended fiscal year, according to a legislative report released Wednesday.
That trend has played a big role in causing total spending on Medicaid in New Mexico to more than double over the last 10 years — from less than $6 billion to nearly $12 billion — even as the number of people covered by the joint-federal healthcare program has decreased.
During a legislative hearing in Red River, top state healthcare officials cited national inflation, increased utilization and an expansion of covered services in New Mexico — including for individuals with autism and doula services — as primary cost-drivers for the state.
“I think we all know that things cost more,” Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo told members of two interim legislative committees.
“New Mexico cannot be an anomaly when there’s a national growth in costs,” she later added.
But some legislators and legislative analysts questioned whether the state’s rapid healthcare spending growth has delivered results.
Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque, said many New Mexico residents are simply using the emergency room as their primary healthcare source due to a shortage of healthcare providers.
“Even the doctors I know don’t have (primary care providers) of their own,” Tobiassen said.
In addition, Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said lawmakers were promised more cost containment when they approved the creation of the state Health Care Authority in 2024, a move that consolidated several previous agencies and departments.
The Legislative Finance Committee report released Wednesday found commercial insurance premiums — not just Medicaid — have also seen hefty cost increases in recent years due to rising prices for hospitals, pharmaceutical drugs and healthcare employee wages.
But the state’s current managed care system — four private insurance companies essentially run the state’s Medicaid program — gives more protection to the companies for patient cost overruns than it provides state savings when cost projections are not met, the report found.
New Mexico was also one of just three states — along with Arizona and Colorado — that saw an increase in drug overdose deaths last year, the report found.
“With the amount of money we’re pouring into the system, we would expect to see better outcomes,” said LFC analyst Eric Chenier.
AN INCREASINGLY EXPENSIVE PRICE TAG
New Mexico has long had one of the nation’s highest percentages of residents who qualify for government-subsidized healthcare.
As of June, there were roughly 818,000 New Mexico residents enrolled in Medicaid — or about 38.6% of the state’s population.
Before that, the state’s Medicaid enrollment had topped out at about 992,000 individuals in the 2023 budget year, due primarily to temporary federal rules enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic that barred people from being disenrolled. Once those rules lapsed, about 180,000 individuals were removed from the state’s Medicaid rolls since they had not filled out the necessary paperwork to remain enrolled.
The individuals who remain enrolled in Medicaid tend to have higher healthcare needs, Amijo said. And that comes with an elevated cost.
New Mexico’s Medicaid enrollment decline over the last 10 years would have meant a roughly $600 million spending decrease if healthcare costs had stayed the same over the time period, the LFC report found.
Instead, the rising per-member cost amounted to $6.7 billion since 2017 — or a net change of more than $6 billion.
Meanwhile, Armijo said most Medicaid recipients in New Mexico are working or going to school, not simply relying on government benefits.
“You can work a minimum wage job in New Mexico and still qualify for Medicaid,” she added.
FEDERAL CHANGES ON THE HORIZON
Even before President Donald Trump signed a sweeping federal tax bill into law last year, New Mexico officials had expressed concern about the legislation’s impact.
State health officials last year warned that six to eight rural hospitals could close due to the bill’s Medicaid changes, while nearly 90,000 residents could lose their healthcare coverage.
The Trump administration has called the changes necessary to combat potential misspending, while also recently withholding Medicaid funds from two Democratic-controlled states — California and Minnesota — due to suspected fraud.
New Mexico has not had any of its federal Medicaid funds withheld to date.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Armijo said the hospital closures have also been avoided so far, but noted many of the federal bill’s provisions will not take effect until next year.
Those provisions include new work requirements for Medicaid recipients and more frequent verification checks to remain enrolled.
While Armijo said the Health Care Authority is preparing for those changes, she said recent state provider rate increases starting have had a positive impact. Specifically, New Mexico’s Medicaid program added 14,836 new providers from July 2024 to May of this year, including a 47% uptick in behavioral health providers, according to HCA data.
The state has also recorded an increase in patient visits despite the enrollment decline, with physical therapy visits increasing by 41.3% and autism visits going up by 54.9% during a recent two-year period.
Dan Boyd covers state government and politics for the Journal in Santa Fe. Follow him on X at @DanBoydNM or reach him via email at dboyd@abqjournal.com.
ABQ BioPark's only jaguar Maya dies at 20 — Karmina Conde, Albuquerque Journal
Maya, the ABQ BioPark’s only jaguar, was euthanized last week due to age-related health issues.
The big cat arrived at the zoo in 2014 at age 8 and died at 20, surpassing the median life expectancy for jaguars of 18.8 years, according to the BioPark.
“Maya was a special animal, and it was a privilege to care for her,” said Carol Bradford, senior veterinarian at the ABQ BioPark.
The BioPark credited Maya’s longevity to the care she received in recent years, including adjustments to her daily routine to keep her comfortable and engaged.
“She was deeply loved by those who knew her best,” Bradford said. “We are grateful for the many years we had with her.”
Last fall, the zoo celebrated Maya’s 20th birthday on International Jaguar Day.
“She’s living proof that with quality care and the right attitude, the good times can continue well into the golden years,” the zoo said in a statement.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies jaguars as "near threatened," according to the BioPark.
The designation means the population of the species has declined and continues to decrease, but enough jaguars remain in the wild to avoid being classified as endangered.
Karmina Conde is a news reporter for the Journal. You can reach her at kconderuiz@abqjournal.com
