House Judiciary Republicans request FBI data on alleged cartel activity on tribal lands

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Wyoming GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman sent a letter Monday to FBI Director Kash Patel, requesting information on how the Biden administration's open border policies led to alleged cartel activity on tribal lands.

The letter is part of the committee's probe into the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, including how the open border policies impacted crime rates in Native American territory. 

The letter comes after Patel testified earlier this year on how crime on tribal lands is a major focus for the bureau, which has renewed its efforts to investigate thousands of violent crimes committed against Native Americans. 

"For four years, the Biden-Harris Administration abandoned America’s borders and failed to enforce immigration laws," the lawmakers wrote. "Although the Trump Administration has secured the border and prioritized immigration enforcement, national security risks from the Biden-Harris border crisis remain a threat to U.S. communities, including in Indian Country.

"The complex jurisdictional authority for tribes to prosecute certain criminal offenses on reservations and the shortage of tribal law enforcement officers make Indian reservations prime locations for dangerous cartel operations," they continued.

"In Indian Country, cartel operatives recruit and take advantage of vulnerable tribal members—those facing unemployment, addiction, or financial strain—and offer these individuals quick cash to transport or distribute narcotics. Over time, drugs take hold in the community as addiction spreads. Violence often follows," they added.

The lawmakers claimed cartels have used Native land to smuggle drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, into the United States and perpetuate an opioid epidemic in Native American communities.

"When someone reports drug cartel activity to the tribal police or refuses to cooperate with the cartels’ demands, the cartel responds with threats, intimidation, and violence to maintain control," they wrote. "The effects on the community include more overdoses, more missing persons, rising fear, and resources stretched thin."

The pair noted the Trump administration's “Operation Not Forgotten," which sent 60 FBI personnel nationwide to help solve thousands of open American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) cases, and over the past six months, the bureau has rotated agents in 90-day temporary duty assignments to help resolve the cases, which concluded in October.

The lawmakers requested information from the operation by Dec. 15, including information on the number, location and assignment of FBI personnel deployed or reassigned to tribal land to work pending violent crime investigations from April 1, 2025, to the present, and violent crime rates in Native territory from the beginning of the Trump administration.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.