Attorney General Mayes Demands Answers from Department of Homeland Security for Endangering Lives by Gutting Fentanyl Investigations

PHOENIX — Attorney General Kris Mayes today blasted the Department of Homeland Security for endangering the lives of Arizonans after its own Office of Inspector General found that the administration's mass deportation campaign gutted federal fentanyl investigations.

The August 20, 2026 OIG report (OIG-26-23) found a 31% drop in the hours Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents spent on fentanyl criminal investigations. Immigration enforcement hours at the same agency rose more than 800%. Between fiscal years 2024 and 2025, immigration hours jumped from roughly 207,000 to nearly 2 million, while fentanyl hours fell from about 824,000 to under 570,000. Shockingly, at one HSI office, agents spent 99% of their time on immigration, "leaving almost no capacity for fentanyl investigations."

"The Trump administration calls fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction but has pulled its agents and investigators who are supposed to be dismantling drug rings off their cases to chase landscapers and maids around our cities,” said Attorney General Mayes. “This is a massive betrayal of every family that has buried a loved one after a fentanyl overdose. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office fights the drug cartels every day and we will continue to do so as long as I’m Attorney General. The federal government has apparently given up on this critical fight.”

The administration has designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and declared fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. Its staffing decisions tell a different story. Fewer agents means fewer undercover operations, less financial tracing and fewer intercepted communications aimed at the networks that move the drug. The inspector general itself warned that failing to address these problems "may lead to an increase in illicit fentanyl available to the public and additional overdose deaths."

The damage extends beyond fentanyl. A November 2025 New York Times investigation found HSI agents spent 33% fewer hours on child exploitation cases from February to April than in prior years, the fewest in more than a decade.

DHS and ICE concurred with the OIG's findings and recommendations to address these dangerous issues, but have given themselves until June 30, 2027 to "determine and implement next steps."

“Arizonans need a federal government committed to keeping them safe today, not by the end of June next year,” continued Mayes. “My office will keep doing everything in our power to disrupt and dismantle transnational drug and human trafficking operations while the federal government surrenders the fight to transnational criminal organziations.”

Attorney General Mayes demands that DHS:

• Immediately restore HSI agent hours to fentanyl investigations in Arizona and across the country.
• Provide detailed answers, well before June 2027, showing how agent time is needed to match the actual threat from illicit fentanyl shipments through Arizona.
• Provide detailed answers on how many drug trafficking and child exploitation cases were ignored or unexamined in Arizona during the period where resources have been diverted for civil immigration enforcement purposes.

“Over half the fentanyl seized every year in this country is seized in Arizona,” said Attorney General Mayes. “Arizonans cannot afford a federal government who ignores these life and death threats to public safety because it would rather use the federal law enforcement apparatus to harass and intimidate immigrants instead.”