They are Americans and not immigrants who cross and distribute drugs in the United States
At the same time, professors and immigrant advocates question the security and probable corruption on the border with Mexico
Amid a debate linking the fentanyl crisis to irregular migration, new official data collected by immigration lawyer Hector Quiroga shows that 86% of fentanyl traffickers into the United States are US citizens and not undocumented immigrants.
At the same time, professors and immigrant advocates are questioning security and likely corruption at the border with Mexico, at At a time when irregular immigration is virtually nonexistent, yet the powerful opioid continues to enter the United States. “The data contradicts the [federal government's] narrative and compels a review of the public approach to border security,” said immigration attorney Hector Quiroga of the Quiroga Law Office. The lawyer compiled comprehensive information to support an objective understanding of the issue, which refutes the accusations made against immigrants by President Donald Trump's administration. In 2024, US law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), identified significant quantities of fentanyl, the most widely used drug in the United States. The DEA seized more than 60 million counterfeit fentanyl pills and nearly 3,600 kilograms of fentanyl powder. This equates to more than 380 million potentially lethal doses.
For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations and DHS agencies seized more than 12,250 kilograms of illicit fentanyl. This included more than 15,000 pounds seized by CBP between October 2023 and the end of June 2024.
Meanwhile, the California National Guard Drug Task Force helped seize more than 8 million fentanyl pills and more than 4,000 pounds of fentanyl powder during the first half of 2024.
Based on CBP data, Quiroga revealed that, in 2024, 87% of the fentanyl seized at the southern border was transported by US citizens, and only 0.02% of seizures occurred at irregular crossings or in desert areas.
They are lying when they blame immigrants
“The trafficking occurs primarily in private or commercial vehicles that enter through legal ports of entry, not through undocumented immigrants,” said the immigration lawyer, for whom linking fentanyl to migration distorts the public debate and security policies.
The immigration lawyer warned that the figures must be interpreted rigorously and not through the lens of political rhetoric.
“The statistics confirm that most fentanyl enters through formal trade channels or “Transportation, not on foot or through undocumented immigrants,” emphasized attorney Quiroga. “However, this issue has been used to justify a tightening of immigration policy under a flawed narrative.” According to Facingfentanilnow.org, a non-profit organization, addiction and death have reached unimaginable levels: more than 100,000 drug-related deaths annually, most of which involve fentanyl. This potent synthetic opioid, which comes primarily from Mexico but is also trafficked by sea and across the Canadian border, is claiming lives at an alarming rate and affects all demographic groups: 35% of those who died were African American, followed by 28.5% American Indians or Alaska Natives; 21.9% Caucasian and 16.5% Latino.
“It is a fact that drug trafficking is not a monopoly of immigrants or Latinos,” described political scientist Miguel Tinker Salas. “Rather, a broad sector of American society participants, including Anglos and African Americans.”
Indeed, among the characteristics of fentanyl traffickers, 82.8% were male offenders, and of these, 41% were Latino; 37.4% African American; 19.9% ??Anglos; and 1.7% belonged to other races, according to the United States Sentencing Commission. Their average age was 34, and almost half of them had little or no criminal record.
“Many are young people who enter that world [of drug trafficking] because of the ease of obtaining financial resources to escape poverty,” the professor analyzed. “Poverty is always an essential factor, which, if eliminated, would end drug trafficking, although we must also talk about and acknowledge the addiction that exists in this country.”
For Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an African American civil rights advocate, The reason for the involvement of young people in fentanyl trafficking is simple: “US-born traffickers, that is, citizens, have the contacts, the resources, and the market access that undocumented immigrants do not.”
Tinker Salas acknowledged that the federal government's baseless accusation that undocumented immigrants are the ones trafficking fentanyl is a lie.
“It's a lie that completely falls apart in the debate,” he said. “There's a saying that the first casualty of a conflict is the truth, and the problem is that, nowadays, the truth is worthless."In this context, President Donald Trump has also included Venezuelans as opioid producers, when the reality is that this poison is not manufactured in that South American nation. “We're not talking about truths, but about rhetoric and political propaganda,” he stated. Militarized Border I also address border security, where in recent months the lowest level of irregular immigration into the United States has been recorded, but drugs continue to flow through, primarily through US ports of entry. Who is letting the drugs in? “Do you think there is corruption at the border?” he was asked.
“That would have to be examined, considering that the Border Patrol has militarized the border like never before; there are already walls, there is surveillance, there are drones, satellites, and high technology,” Tinker Salas responded.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a massive persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of ??responsible control.”
The report by attorney Hector Quiroga also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl that crosses between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel]. But domestic distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States. The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona, and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts.
Tinker Salas acknowledged that the federal government's baseless accusation that undocumented immigrants are trafficking fentanyl is a lie.
“It's a lie that completely falls apart in the debate,” he said “There's a saying that. the first casualty of a conflict is the truth, and the problem is that, nowadays, the truth is worthless.” In this context, President Donald Trump has also included Venezuelans as opioid producers, when the reality is that this poison is not manufactured in that South American nation. “We're not talking about rhetoric and political propaganda,” he stated. “Do you think there is corruption at the border?” he was asked.
“That would have to be examined, considering that the Border Patrol has militarized the border like never before; there are already walls, there is surveillance, there are drones, satellites, and high technology,” Tinker Salas responded.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a massive persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of ??responsible control.”
The report by attorney Hector Quiroga also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl that crosses between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel]. But domestic distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States. The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona, and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts.
Tinker Salas acknowledged that the federal government's baseless accusation that undocumented immigrants are trafficking fentanyl is a lie.
“It's a lie that completely falls apart in the debate,” he said “There's a saying that. the first casualty of a conflict is the truth, and the problem is that, nowadays, the truth is worthless.” In this context, President Donald Trump has also included Venezuelans as opioid producers, when the reality is that this poison is not manufactured in that South American nation. “We're not talking about rhetoric and political propaganda,” he stated. “Do you think there is corruption at the border?” he was asked.
“That would have to be examined, considering that the Border Patrol has militarized the border like never before; there are already walls, there is surveillance, there are drones, satellites, and high technology,” Tinker Salas responded.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a massive persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of ??responsible control.”
The report by attorney Hector Quiroga also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl that crosses between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel]. But domestic distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States. The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona,and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts.President Donald Trump has also included Venezuelans as opioid producers, when the reality is that this poison is not manufactured in that South American nation. “We don't talk about truths, but about rhetoric and political propaganda,” he stated. Militarized Border I also address border security, where in recent months the lowest level of irregular immigration into the United States has been recorded, but drugs continue to flow mainly through US ports of entry. Who is letting the drugs in? “Do you think there is corruption at the border?” he was asked.
“That would have to be examined, considering that the Border Patrol has militarized the border like never before; there are already walls, there is surveillance, there are drones, satellites, and high technology,” Tinker Salas responded.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a massive persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of ??responsible control.”
The report by attorney Hector Quiroga also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl that crosses between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel]. But domestic distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States. The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona, and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts. President Donald Trump has also included Venezuelans as opioid producers, when the reality is that this poison is not manufactured in that South American nation. “We don't talk about truths, but about rhetoric and political propaganda,” he stated. Militarized Border I also address border security, where in recent months the lowest level of irregular immigration into the United States has been recorded, but drugs continue to flow mainly through US ports of entry. Who is letting the drugs in? “Do you think there is corruption at the border?” he was asked.
“That would have to be examined, considering that the Border Patrol has militarized the border like never before; there are already walls, there is surveillance, there are drones, satellites, and high technology,” Tinker Salas responded.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a massive persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of responsible control.”
The report by attorney Hector Quiroga also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl that crosses between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel]. But domestic distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States. The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona, and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson added that “The control on the southern border is not really control, but a mass persecution of individuals to harass, arrest, and illegally detain them, and make them escape. That is not my idea of ????responsible control.”
Attorney Hector Quiroga's report also shows that fentanyl moves on highways, not on migration routes.
He maintains that DEA reports detail that 90% of the fentanyl crossing between ports of entry comes from criminal organizations based in Mexico [the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel], but internal distribution and the main demand are concentrated within the United States.
The largest seizures do not occur at the border, but in states like California, Arizona, and Texas, on highways and at logistics terminals, in districts like Missouri, New York, and Massachusetts.