Trump Administration Accused of Secret Deal Allowing Cartel Families into U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a development raising serious legal and ethical questions, Mexico’s top security official confirmed Tuesday that 17 relatives of Mexican drug cartel leaders including family members of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán were quietly allowed to cross into the United States last week under a deal reportedly negotiated between cartel leadership and the Trump administration.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch validated an earlier report by independent journalist Luis Chaparro, confirming that the family members of Ovidio Guzmán López—one of El Chapo’s sons and a senior figure in the Sinaloa Cartel were filmed walking across the border in Tijuana with their luggage, escorted by U.S. agents.
Among those who entered the United States were Griselda López Pérez, El Chapo’s ex-wife, and their daughter, according to Mexico News Daily. The footage, which has since gone viral on Mexican media, shows a coordinated transfer that appeared anything but spontaneous.
A Deal in Exchange for Cooperation?
Guzmán López, also known as “El Ratón” (The Mouse), was extradited to the U.S. in 2023 and has reportedly been engaged in ongoing negotiations with American authorities. His cooperation appears to involve providing information about rival factions and rival cartels in exchange for leniency—and potentially, protection for his family.
“It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him,” García Harfuch said in a Tuesday radio interview. He added that Mexican authorities were not pursuing any of the 17 family members, but emphasized that the Trump administration had not shared details of the deal with Mexico’s government, a possible violation of bilateral security agreements.
This covert arrangement raises significant legal questions given the Trump administration’s prior designation of the Sinaloa Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, and their prior hardline rhetoric on border security.
U.S. Prosecutors Take Hard Stance
While U.S. officials declined to confirm or comment directly on the video, they doubled down on legal action against cartel leaders. On the same day the crossing was confirmed, U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon of the Southern District of California announced fresh narco-terrorism charges against Sinaloa Cartel members—marking the first such charges since President Trump’s reclassification of drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
“Let me be direct,” Gordon said in a press conference. “To the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel—you are no longer the hunters, you are the hunted… you will be betrayed by your friends, hounded by your enemies, and ultimately face justice here in our courts.”
Meanwhile, U.S. officials unsealed an indictment against two cartel leaders, including a father-son duo who allegedly operated a sprawling fentanyl empire. According to the 2023 DOJ indictment, the Chapito, El Chapo’s sons used brutal torture tactics including electrocution, hot peppers, and even feeding victims to tigers. Their operations are linked to mass killings and internal cartel warfare that has left over 1,200 people dead and more than 1,400 missing in Mexico’s Sinaloa state.
Political Firestorm Brewing
While the Biden administration and DOJ have remained silent on the details of the alleged deal, critics say the Trump-era arrangement—if confirmed—would amount to a stunning contradiction: a president who campaigned on “law and order” secretly cutting deals with the families of terrorist-designated narco-traffickers.
Legal analysts warn this could also set a dangerous precedent.
“If you’re negotiating with cartel leaders and offering their families safe haven in the U.S. in exchange for intel, you’re not just walking a legal tightrope—you’re dancing on a landmine,” said former federal prosecutor Angela Reyes.
Trump allies have not yet publicly responded to the revelation, but pressure is mounting for a congressional inquiry. Immigration and legal experts argue that granting entry to known relatives of cartel bosses without due process or transparency may constitute a violation of federal law and could open the door to broader security risks.
Meanwhile, El Chapo remains imprisoned in Colorado’s ADX Florence Supermax facility, where he has reportedly claimed he is the victim of psychological abuse. In 2023, he sent an SOS to Mexico’s president pleading for repatriation—a request that has not been acted upon.
The Bigger Picture
The Sinaloa Cartel remains one of the most violent and powerful criminal organizations in the world. As the U.S. continues to grapple with the fentanyl epidemic and drug-related violence, revelations of secret backchannel deals between the Trump administration and cartel-linked figures could prove politically explosive in the lead-up to the 2026 elections.
Whether this episode will become another footnote in the war on drugs or the centerpiece of a major scandal remains to be seen—but what’s clear is this: the border wall wasn’t the only thing crossing lines.
Sources:
Mexico News Daily: https://mexiconewsdaily.com
Luis Chaparro via X: https://twitter.com/luiskuryaki
Associated Press: https://apnews.com
U.S. Department of Justice: https://justice.gov
Agence France-Presse (AFP): https://www.afp.com
- U.S. Senate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOAn2sdcYuA
