Washington, DC — The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has scaled back its fentanyl trafficking investigations and redirected resources toward immigration enforcement, according to a new report from the department’s Office of Inspector General.
Fentanyl-related investigations carried out by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fell 24 percent in fiscal year 2025, the first year of Donald Trump’s second term, the report found.
Created in 2010 under the jurisdiction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), HSI fields more than 7,100 special agents tasked with combating illegal drugs along the Mexican border.
“Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, the hours agents devoted to fentanyl-related investigations increased steadily,” the report states. The review evaluated only HSI’s anti-fentanyl efforts and did not examine the work of other agencies.
“As ICE reoriented its priorities toward immigration enforcement, the level of HSI effort in the fight against fentanyl declined between fiscal years 2024 and 2025,” the report adds.
The decline extended beyond case counts. Investigative hours dedicated to combating fentanyl dropped 30 percent, while fentanyl seizures fell 39 percent over the same period.
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