Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was using the Signal Message app.

A Searchlight New Mexico investigation has found that over the past year, the CYFD used the secure text messaging app Signal to discuss a wide range of official business, including the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the care of children in state custody and concerns about private contractors. Department leadership then set many of those communications to automatically delete, rendering them forever inaccessible to attorneys, members of the public and journalists.

Searchlight also found that the Office of the Governor and the state’s Department of Information Technology supported the systematic deletion of messages, according to emails and policy guidance obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request. Legal experts warn that it is likely to impede investigations into the agency, cripple the ability of attorneys to represent children in state custody, and could violate the New Mexico Public Records Act’s rules on retention of documents.

The CYFD’s use of Signal is currently under investigation by the office of state Attorney General Hector Balderas, following an earlier Searchlight report detailing the agency’s routine deletion of encrypted messages. House Republicans asked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to provide a report detailing “whether her office staff and/or cabinet level staff have been using data encryption and data dumping.”

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2021/05/22/two-cyfd-employees-who-raised-concerns-over-deleted-records-were-later-fired/