New Mexico Governor Demands Answers, Reparations Over Fentanyl Crisis
Weird. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham withdrew the National Guard from the border because she refused to believe the “federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border.”
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, wants answers and reparations in civil damages after a report exposed that Drug Enforcement Administration agents allowed fentanyl to flood her state between 2023 and 2025.
“It is the most derelict, despicable act in my long career,” Lujan Gisham said on Monday. “The DEA stood silently by and watched thousands of fentanyl pills get distributed with no arrests, no effort, no notice that we know of to anywhere else.”
“Someone must pay,” the governor added.
Lujan Grisham’s frustrations began during the Biden administration, even though the governor has a history of opposing President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure the border.
“I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis,” Lujan Grisham stressed in a press release.
It’d help if Lujan Grisham worked with Trump to secure her border.
In 2019, Lujan Grisham withdrew the National Guard from the border. She refused to believe the “federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border.”
In May, the DOJ filed a complaint against New Mexico officials over House Bill 9, accusing the state of infringing on federal immigration enforcement authority:
Through HB9, the State of New Mexico is trying to abolish decades of long-standing, voluntary partnerships between local governments and federal authorities that are essential for enforcing immigration laws and keeping the federal immigration system running as Congress intended. Both HB9 and the SCPO seek to block federal agents from using any local government property to carry out their work. Additionally, by unlawfully requiring private businesses to tip off illegal aliens about immigration enforcement activities, the SCPO attempts to harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection by federal immigration authorities and poses an obstacle to the enforcement of federal immigration law.
Lujan Grisham is also Texas’s only neighbor who did not respond to Gov. Greg Abbott’s calls for help securing the border.
Besides not helping secure the border, Lujan Grisham’s outrage stems from an AP report revealing that the DEA allowed thousands of fentanyl pills to enter New Mexico between 2023 and 2025. Three current and former DEA agents relayed the information to the AP, which also reviewed records:
DEA agents repeatedly monitored shipments of fentanyl pills — but did not seize them — as federal prosecutors sought to bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers of a synthetic opioid that the White House last year designated a “ weapon of mass destruction.”
—
Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico from May 2022 until February 2025, said authorities at times allowed drug shipments to go unseized as part of a broader effort to gather intelligence and build cases against major drug traffickers. He said the approach reflected his office’s limited resources and his belief that prosecuting larger organizations can have a bigger impact than interdicting every suspected drug transaction.
Last year, the DEA recorded the largest fentanyl bust in its history in Albuquerque.
“The bigger fish are worth catching,” Uballez said, “and that will save more lives.”
The DEA told the AP that “the investigative decisions at issue were lawful, reasonable under the circumstances and consistent with Department guidance.”
Yeah, because we have never ever seen anything awful happen due to these schemes, right? You know, like Operation Fast & Furious.
Lawful or not…just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Records showed the AP that DEA agents kept “such detailed intelligence about drug deliveries that agents were able to tally precise pill counts.”
Lujan Grisham also wants assurances that the DEA won’t continue to use risky operations that could jeopardize people.
The DEA asked the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate these claims.
DEA Administrator Tom Cole believes agents did everything by the book and that no one should interpret his request as a lack of confidence in any DEA personnel.
“If DEA’s actions are confirmed to have been appropriate, such a review will strengthen public confidence in the agency and in the professionalism of its workforce,” Cole wrote. “If opportunities for improvement are identified, DEA is committed to implementing appropriate corrective actions and incorporating lessons learned into future operations.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez already launched a criminal investigation into the operation.
“New Mexico already ranks among the states hardest hit by fentanyl overdose deaths,” Torrez said. “And the families who have lost children, siblings and parents to this crisis deserve a full accounting of what the federal government knew, what it did and what it failed to do.”
The DOJ also welcomed any partnership with New Mexico officials.
“Should that review identify areas of improvement, the DEA will of course implement changes to better their practices,” stated the DOJ. “We welcome a partnership with Governor Lujan Grisham, as well as New Mexico state and local leaders, to fight the scourge of fentanyl and keep her constituents safe.”
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“We don’t need to close the border to stop the flood of fentanyl,” says Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Grisham, the human troll doll, did NOTHING to try and stem the tide of fentanyl into the state. Now she’s trying to pretend she was so very concerned and working the problem… that is a lie. She doesn’t care about the residents of NM, she takes her marching orders from the DNC and they find it acceptable now to blame Biden Inc for all his misdeeds while also pretending they didn’t support him 100%. And now our tiny tyrant wants reparations? Absolutely not! Grisham and her flying monkeys in the Roundhouse have done nothing to get a grip on the crime and mental health problems in this state. Instead she decided that parents would receive free childcare, regardless of income. This state remains one big dumpster fire.
2023-2025?
That was YOUR PARTY, asshole.
Hmm.
Don’t want the COVID shot? You should lose your job, your children, and healthcare.
You want to do fentanyl? Federal reparations!
Kissing cousin to Fast and Furious. She should be on board with since started in 2023.
She’s not wrong – ON THIS – but she’s an open-borders clown on everything else. Rewind her wall-busting stupid campaign video
She is wrong. This is SOP for investigations into any organized crime. Low-level operatives, who are known to be breaking the law, are allowed to conduct their illegal activities (including drug-running) in order for a case to be built against the bosses. This is SOP in Chicago, L.A., NYC, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. None of those cities (nor their respective States) are due any “reparations” for LE doing what they’re supposed to do – halt organized crime. Organized crime rings are not busted by the immediate and regular arrest of their soldiers.
Where are the arrests? This has been going on for decades, with the help of local politicians in many cases and we’ve seen precious few convictions.
There are usually guiderails in place for investigators, though, which Uballez failed to observe. Letting some shipments through is fine if the mules are tracked and those pills are properly accounted for. Taking virtually no action while the border is flooded with perhaps the most deadly if all the popular illegal drugs with high nationwide addiction rates is irresponsible. At the very least, I think a mourning parent in NM could raise a wrongful death suit. Whether they succeed or not is debatable, but at least it would open poor practices of the Biden administration to the light of day.
The Trump Admin should make a big deal out of this. Do a WH event or even fly to NM to stage it. All sorts of lights, camera, action thanking the Gov for agreeing to work closely with Federal LEO then see if she accepts or declines the center stage opportunity …she’ll decline b/c ICE/Homeland and CBP are Federal LEO she objects to. No worries, use it as an object lesson. End ALL Federal State cooperation/assistance with NM and any local NM jurisdiction who refuses to cooperate with ICE/Homeland and CBP. Pull CBP from border crossings and airports. End access to FBI resources and requests for info from Federal databases. See if she changes her mind about cooperation. Other States might just wonder if they are next and perhaps rethink their own intransigence.
This is like a Nazi demanding the Jews be prosecuted for carrying out the Holocaust. The blood of the innocent is on Grisham’s hands – and all other advocates of open borders.
When elected leaders openly commit heinous acts and then use those same acts to prosecute the innocent – well, I do not see how we can avoid civil war anymore.
Could it be that aliens from Area 51 have sucked the brains out of the government leaders of NM?
I think you’re confusing Nevada (Area 51) with New Mexico (Roswell).
There’s a Stargate.
So Breaking Bad was based upon a true story? She could hire Saul Goodman, he has experience dealing with the DEA.
New Mexico has been a major drug highway for decades thanks a porous border and I-25 and I-40. It used to be the major entry point for Black Tar Heroin to be spread across the country. Española, in Northern NM was a transshipment point and we have several generations of Heroin junkies to this day. It was the heroin addiction capitol of the USA. Once fentanyl hit the streets, there was a major shift from heroin to fent and it’s been an absolute plague on our communities. The DEA didn’t make New Mexico #1 in drug addiction in the nation, we were already there. If Grisham gave a shit about our addiction rates, she would have been lobbying the fed to seal the border.
This is very unlike Fast and Furious. In F&F, the federal government provided the objects of the criminals’ enterprise – the firearms that were then trafficked. This is not the case here. In the current situation federal LE merely observed criminal activity. They didn’t provoke or enable it, as was done in F&F.
Also, the problematic materiel was being shipped OUT of the country, not into it.
And the CBP stood silently by and watched thousands of foreigners cross the border with no arrests, no effort, no notice that we know of to anyone. With your support. What’s the difference?
Shouldn’t she be demanding the source of the fentynal pay — Mexico?
You mean China.
Both are complicit.
New Mexico is a geographically beautiful state,
The electorate that put this jerk in the Governor’s seat, not so much.