Alejandro Mayorkas stood before Congress in 2023 and called fentanyl the single greatest challenge we face as a country.
Now his own department's records tell a story that should put him in a hearing room.
What Comer just uncovered isn't a policy failure – it's a coverup with a body count.
Biden DEA Whistleblowers Describe How Fentanyl Walking Killed a New Mexico Toddler
For two years, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New Mexico had fentanyl shipments in their crosshairs – some carrying as many as 100,000 pills – and let every one of them go.
The tactic is called "walking."
Agents had probable cause to seize the pills and a federal mandate to stop fentanyl from reaching the streets.
Under Biden, they were ordered to stand down.
The stated rationale was building bigger trafficking cases further up the cartel chain.
The result was hundreds of thousands of pills pouring into New Mexico communities while the agents charged with stopping them watched it happen.
DEA whistleblower David Howell – a 19-year agency veteran – was so disturbed that he began personally tracking overdose deaths he believed were caused by pills his own agency had released.
One of those cases was a 15-month-old toddler who died after ingesting burned fentanyl residue in Española, a small New Mexico town already devastated by poverty and addiction.
Two other current and former DEA agents later came forward with their own accounts – and alleged the agency retaliated against them for speaking out.
The Biden DOJ Rule Change That Made Fentanyl Walking Easier
Biden's Department of Justice didn't just tolerate the walking – it reversed the rules that were supposed to stop it.
In 2019, the Trump DOJ issued Risk Mitigation protocols that required agents with probable cause to seize fentanyl rather than let it move.
Biden's DOJ scrapped those protocols and replaced them with guidance giving prosecutors and agents latitude to weigh the value of an ongoing investigation against the public safety cost of letting a weapon of mass destruction walk free.
When Biden's Justice Department reviewed Howell's whistleblower complaint, it called his allegations unsubstantiated – and then changed the rules to permit more of the same.
And Mayorkas – the man who told the Senate fentanyl was the greatest threat America faces – ran the department while it happened.
House Oversight Chair James Comer told Newsmax his committee is accumulating evidence that Biden officials "knew about the fentanyl that was pouring across the border" and "chose not to" act despite having "an opportunity to do something."
Those three words – "chose not to" – are going to matter in a hearing room.
Comer Demands Mayorkas Testify as Biden DEA Fentanyl Scandal Widens
Comer has given Attorney General Todd Blanche a September 14 deadline to produce all DEA records related to fentanyl enforcement in New Mexico during the Biden years.
The House Oversight Chair is also demanding Mayorkas himself appear before the committee.
That is a serious problem for Mayorkas, because the same man who declared fentanyl America's top crisis ran a department that dismantled the protocols designed to keep it off American streets.
Trump closed the border within 48 hours of taking office – proving Mayorkas's claim that the situation was "out of the government's hands" was either a lie or the most catastrophic incompetence in modern government history.
Comer didn't mince words about it. "Mayorkas was proven a liar very quickly," he told Newsmax.
Current and former DEA agents who spoke out compared the walking operation directly to Fast and Furious – the Obama-era scandal in which ATF agents allowed 2,000 assault weapons to flow to Mexican cartels.
Two of those weapons showed up at the murder scene of a Border Patrol agent.
Fast and Furious triggered years of congressional investigations and destroyed careers.
Same scheme, different administration, same willingness to let Americans die while officials in Washington calculated their next move.
The New Mexico attorney general has already launched a parallel criminal investigation.
If the records Blanche produces confirm that Biden officials signed off on watching fentanyl kill New Mexicans, Mayorkas is going to need a very good lawyer.
If Blanche stalls, that answer is almost as useful to Comer.
Either way, the document trail Biden's team thought would stay buried just became a congressional exhibit.
Sources:
- Jim Thomas, "Rep. Comer to Newsmax: Biden DEA Let Fentanyl Deaths Mount," Newsmax, September 2, 2026.
- Mary Chastain, "Oversight Committee Launches Probe Into Biden DEA's 'Walking Fentanyl' Operation," Legal Insurrection, August 31, 2026.
- "Comer launches probe into actions by Biden admin's DEA that allowed fentanyl to reach streets," Just the News, August 31, 2026.
- Geoff Harris, "Feds allowed millions of fentanyl pills to 'walk' on New Mexico streets: DEA Whistleblower," The National Desk, June 24, 2026.
- "Chairman Comer Investigates Biden Administration's DEA for Allowing Fentanyl to Hit U.S. Streets," House Oversight Committee, August 31, 2026.