Mexican lawyers and family members accused the government on Monday of violating the law by sending nearly 100 cartel members to the United States without extradition orders. The challenge centers on 37 cartel suspects transferred recently as Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum seeks to maintain cooperation with the Trump administration, which has pressed Mexico to intensify its cartel crackdown.
The dispute highlights tensions between rapid transfers the U.S. administration requested and Mexico’s constitutional due-process requirements, with lawyers questioning whether national-security concerns are being invoked to bypass legal safeguards.
Since February 2025, Mexico has transferred 92 cartel members to the United States in three separate deliveries requested by the Trump administration, according to information presented by the lawyers. The Trump administration has stated the suspects were wanted for crimes in the United States and had outstanding extradition requests.
Mexico’s government has maintained the transfers were legal and conducted in the name of national security. But lawyers and family members contend the transfers violated Mexican law by bypassing the formal extradition process, which requires a lengthy legal review.
Lawyers Question Due Process
Yarey Sánchez Lagunas, representing two transferred cartel members, said at a Monday press conference that Mexico is operating under acute pressure. “Mexico is currently under intense pressure from the United States,” Sánchez Lagunas said. “This forces us to seriously question if these decisions are being used to show political results, even if it comes at the expense of due process or the rule of law.”
Sánchez Lagunas represents Itiel Palacios García, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel transferred in February 2025, and Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, a leader of the Arellano Félix Cartel in northern Mexico transferred in August 2025. The lawyers’ arguments echo those made by the legal team of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
The latest transfer of 37 cartel members occurred around January 20–22, 2026. Vanesa Guzmán, whose partner Juan Pedro Saldívar Farías was included in that group, filed a criminal complaint Monday against Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch and other officials. She accused them of “treason” in a complaint submitted to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. Saldívar Farías is accused of arms and drug trafficking.
“The transfer of my partner is nothing less than exile,” Guzmán said. “As of today, we haven’t heard anything from him. He hasn’t even made his legally permitted call.”
Political Pressure and Strategic Goals
Once transferred outside Mexico, the cartel members have no legal avenue to challenge their transfers within Mexican courts, the lawyers said. These moves are part of a broader strategy by President Claudia Sheinbaum to intensify her cartel crackdown and maintain strong relations with the Trump administration, which has threatened military action against Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations.
Former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations Mike Vigil offered a different perspective on Monday. He defended the transfers, arguing that Mexico’s constitution permits the president to take major security decisions and contending that cartel leaders routinely maintain access to their criminal operations from Mexican prisons through phones and other means. “Sheinbaum did it to enhance cooperation with the U.S. government, but at the same time she understands that these individuals, if they remain in prisons there … they usually have access to their criminal organizations, have access through phones,” Vigil said of the rapid transfers. “These fast tracks are extremely valuable in terms of making sure they face justice.”