Republican Party of New Mexico
10/24/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/24/2026 10:28
Kane Will Create State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Unit: “Every Case Gets an Investigator. Every Family Gets an Answer.”
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 20, 2026 A new federal audit exposes a backlog of hundreds of cases. Kane says New Mexico can't keep waiting on Washington Albuquerque, NM - Attorney General candidate Sam Kane today pledged to create a dedicated Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Unit inside the New Mexico Department of Justice. The announcement follows a federal audit showing that the government's own MMIP program has left hundreds of cases unworked and many families uninformed. The September report from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Inspector General found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Missing and Murdered Unit had nearly 400 referrals pending as of late 2024. Most of them had been received between 2020 and 2023. The audit cited chronic understaffing, no set timelines for reviewing cases, and agents who failed to bring in victim specialists as the unit's own rules require. It also found that money set aside for the unit was used to buy vehicles for other agencies. The Missing and Murdered Unit was launched in April 2021 by then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, now a candidate for governor of New Mexico, who promised it would bring answers to Indigenous families. Five years later, her own former department's watchdog has documented a unit that is understaffed, behind on its caseload, and failing to keep families informed. The consequences are being felt in New Mexico. A Navajo mother of three disappeared in 2002 after dinner in Gallup. Her family has dealt with at least five FBI investigators over the years, and they recently learned her case had been removed from the federal unit's website without anyone telling them. A Laguna Pueblo woman went missing this May, and her family's attorney says the federal unit has not provided updates or even a point of contact. The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates about 4,200 missing and murdered Indigenous cases remain unsolved nationwide. "I was raised on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation's reservation, and I have a special connection to the indigenous community. These cases are not mere statistics to me," said Kane. "When someone goes missing in Indian Country, the first question too often isn't 'where is she?' It's 'whose case is this?' Tribal police, the FBI, the BIA, county sheriffs, and state police pass the file back and forth while the trail goes cold and the family is left to search on its own. That ends when I'm Attorney General." The audit also exposed a gap the state is positioned to fill. Most missing Indigenous people are not reported missing on tribal land, and the federal unit has told local law enforcement that it does not take cases arising off the reservation. Off tribal land, the State of New Mexico has jurisdiction. In other words, the state has the authority to act and has not been using it. The Kane Plan: New Mexico MMIP Unit First, every case would be assigned an investigator. Each missing or murdered Indigenous person case referred to the unit would get a named investigator who actively follows up, rather than sitting in a referral queue. Second, families would be kept informed. Every family would have a named victim advocate and be updated on a regular schedule. No case would be closed or declined unless the family is told first and given the reason. Third, jurisdiction would be settled on the first day. Kane will seek formal cooperation agreements with the Navajo Nation, the 19 Pueblos, the Apache Nations, the Department of Public Safety, county sheriffs, the FBI, and the BIA. The agreements would set out who leads each case from the first report, so that no agency can pass the case along and no family is left without someone to call. Fourth, the unit would take on the cases Washington won't. It would aggressively pursue disappearances and homicides of Indigenous New Mexicans that happen off tribal land, where the state has clear authority and federal agencies have stepped back. Fifth, the unit would review cold cases. A dedicated team would reexamine long-unsolved cases, working with tribal task forces and with the families who have kept these cases alive on their own. Sixth, the unit would account for its funding and results publicly. It would publish an annual report on cases opened, cases solved, people located, and how every dollar was spent. "Families in this state have been doing the work of law enforcement for decades: printing the flyers, raising money for search dogs, begging for a phone call back," Kane said. "The idea for a state investigative unit has been on the Attorney General's desk. It's time someone in that office actually built it." Sam Kane is the Republican candidate for New Mexico Attorney General. Learn more at samfornewmexico.org. ### |
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