Trump’s homeland security chief says pressure on Mexican cartels pushing crime to Canadian border
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The U.S. crackdown on drug trafficking at the border with Mexico has triggered an increase in criminal activity coming across the border from Canada, according to Markwayne Mullin, the U.S. secretary of homeland security.
Speaking to an audience in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday alongside Gary Anandasangaree, Canada’s minister of public safety, Mullin said law enforcement officials are seeing an increase in fentanyl trafficking from Canada, something he attributed to U.S. efforts against Mexican cartels at the southern border.
“The biggest concern we see is what’s happening on our southern border being pushed up to our northern border because of the pressure we’re putting on the cartels,” Mullin told a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank.
He said the cartels “don’t just go away. Their business models still exist. The demand still exists, and so they start pushing and looking for other areas.”
The Trump administration’s concerns about border security are among its key irritants with Canada.
This was the first Canada-focused public event by Mullin since he took over as homeland security secretary from Kristi Noem in March.
U.S. authorities arrest someone on the country’s terrorist watchlist “almost weekly” at the northern border, Mullin said. He also said law enforcement is seeing “lots more” drug trafficking from Canada, particularly fentanyl, over the past year.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, nominated Mullin as homeland security secretary in March to replace Kristi Noem. The pair are shown in Washington on May 7. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)
“Our biggest priority now is to have great partnerships with our friends to the north, to be able to actively stop it before it grows to the point that it is in Mexico,” Mullin said.
It’s unclear what evidence Mullin has for his claim of “lots more” drug trafficking coming from Canada.
U.S. officials have seized just six pounds (2.7 kilograms) of fentanyl along the northern border over the first seven months of the current fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics. That contrasts with 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of fentanyl seized during the entire 2025 fiscal year.
However, the overall tone of his comments suggests Mullin and the security apparatus he oversees are on good terms with their Canadian counterparts.
“Just working through small things,” he said, with a nod toward Anandasangaree. “We’ll get through it, the minister and I are going to build a great relationship. We’re going to be able to make this happen.”
‘They need us and we need them’
Mullin even struck a note that differs from some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s most anti-Canadian rhetoric.
“We have fought wars together with Canada, we have spilled blood together in other parts of the world,” he said.
“When push comes to shove, you know, we may disagree on stuff, but they need us and we need them,” Mullin said. “We’ve got to figure it out because we’re not going anywhere, and they’re not going anywhere, too.”
Anandasangaree touted the impact of Canada’s border security plan over the past 18 months, saying it has brought a significant reduction in irregular migration and drug trafficking to the U.S.
He acknowledged there’s “room for improvement” on communication between Canadian and U.S. law enforcement but cited several high-profile cases where there has been cross-border co-operation, including the capture of accused drug trafficker Ryan Wedding.
“What differences we have are negligible, compared to what we have in common and the work that we’re doing together,” Anandasangaree said. “So if there are irritations, we need to just work through them.”
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‘We can get a little bull-headed’
Mullin was a Republican representative for Oklahoma and then a U.S. senator before landing the homeland security post in Trump’s cabinet.
He said he’d like to see improvement in enforcement agencies on both sides of the border sharing intelligence and moving on it quickly.
“If it takes five days to act on something that we had the information on the week before, the asset that we’re going after … is moved by then,” he said.
When U.S. or Canadian officials tell their counterparts “you need to do this,” the typical reaction is to say “don’t tell us what to do,” Mullin said.
“We’ve got to do a better job in the U.S., maybe, listening to their concerns, because sometimes we can get a little bull-headed,” he said.
“We’re building a relationship to make sure that we have one goal, and that goal is to chase the bad guys, and both countries can agree with that.”
