Why It Matters

A new Justice Department memorandum and other developments have left the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unclear about which of their longstanding collaboration requirements remain in effect, according to a report published Sept. 30 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The agencies at the center of the review, DEA and HSI, have operated under formal cooperation agreements since 2009, but GAO found that key requirements, including joint training and a functioning Headquarters Review Team, were never fully sustained or implemented before DOJ officials said they were still assessing how the May memorandum affects those existing requirements.

DEA and ICE together are responsible for investigating illicit drug activity with a connection to U.S. borders, and the opioid epidemic has been a national public health emergency since October 2017. GAO's findings arrive at a moment when federal counternarcotics coordination is already under scrutiny and when the framework governing that coordination has changed more than once in roughly 18 months.

The Big Picture

The federal framework for counternarcotics enforcement assigns DEA the lead role in combating illicit drug trafficking, with ICE's HSI serving as a partner on illicit drug activity connected to U.S. borders. A June 2009 interagency cooperation agreement and a January 2021 joint letter govern that partnership and require DEA to cross-designate HSI special agents to conduct counternarcotics investigations under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and for both agencies to deconflict case information and conduct joint training, among other obligations.

Prior to a May memorandum from the acting attorney general, GAO found that DEA and ICE's collaboration generally addressed four of eight leading interagency collaboration practices, including defining common outcomes and clarifying roles and responsibilities, while the remaining four practices, ensuring accountability, sustaining leadership, bridging organizational cultures and updating agreements, had not been fully addressed. Those four practices involve activities required by the existing agreements, including a functioning Headquarters Review Team, which the agencies never fully sustained as required by the 2009 agreement, and joint training, which the agencies had not fully implemented as required by the 2021 joint letter.

DOJ issued two additional documents that bear on the collaboration: a January 2025 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion and the May memorandum from the acting attorney general. The OLC opinion addressed the designation of HSI special agents and state and local officers serving on HSI task forces to conduct drug investigations under the CSA, concluding that designated personnel must operate under DEA supervision when engaged in those investigations. The May memorandum asked HSI to use its Title 21 authorities to help DOJ enforce the CSA and established additional coordination and reporting mechanisms. Together, the developments altered the context in which the 2009 and 2021 agreements operate, raising questions about which provisions of those earlier documents remain in effect. As of June, DOJ officials told GAO they were still determining how the May memorandum would affect existing requirements in the agreements, including whether the Headquarters Review Team and joint training requirements remain in force.

Broader Context

GAO conducted site visits with a non-generalizable sample of nine DEA and HSI field offices, selected to reflect a variety of geographic regions and drug-seizure volumes over an eight-and-a-half-year period, and interviewed headquarters officials at both agencies. Congress requested the report, and GAO examined both new DOJ and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents issued since 2021 and the extent to which DEA and ICE activities aligned with leading collaboration practices.

GAO issued five recommendations, all of which remain open. Three recommendations go to DOJ and two to DHS. The first DOJ recommendation directs the attorney general to collaborate with the secretary of homeland security to clarify the status of requirements in the 2009 agreement and 2021 joint letter, including the Headquarters Review Team, field office notification of investigations and operational plans, and joint training; a parallel DHS recommendation directs the secretary of homeland security to collaborate with the attorney general on the same clarification.

A second DOJ recommendation directs the Attorney General, after that clarification, to direct DEA, in collaboration with ICE, to update the existing agreements or develop a new framework that addresses changes to the current operating environment. A third DOJ recommendation asks the attorney general to clarify how DOJ will implement key supervisory mechanisms identified in the January 2025 OLC opinion in light of any changes to those requirements. The parallel DHS recommendations mirror the first two: the Secretary of Homeland Security is asked to collaborate with the Attorney General to clarify the agreements' status and then direct ICE, in collaboration with DEA, to update or replace the existing framework.

The Bottom Line

DOJ agreed with the recommendations directed at it. DHS disagreed with its two recommendations, and GAO stated that it maintains those recommendations are valid, as discussed in the report. All five recommendations remain open, leaving DOJ and DHS to resolve the uncertainty GAO identified over which requirements govern DEA and HSI's counternarcotics collaboration.

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