Stephen Miller, a high-ranking U.S. government official, claimed on Monday that Mexico City is “run by criminal cartels,” prompting President Claudia Sheinbaum to declare that he is probably unaware of the reality of the situation in the capital.
Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s homeland security advisor, made the claim during an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity.
After defending Trump’s decision to deploy the U.S. National Guard to Washington, D.C., Miller asserted that U.S. cities governed by the Democratic Party are “more violent than Baghdad, more violent than communities in Ethiopia and places that many Americans wouldn’t even dream of visiting.”
Democrat-controlled cities are more violent than “some of the most dangerous places on planet Earth,” he added.
“More dangerous than Mexico City! Democrat cities are more dangerous than Mexico City, which is run by criminal cartels,” Miller said.
His remarks came two weeks after Trump said that the murder rate in Washington is “higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia, [and] Mexico City — some of the places you hear about as being the worst places on Earth.”
The Guardian reported at the time that “Mexico City’s homicide rate in 2024 was 10 per 100,000 residents, according to government figures, versus 27.5 per 100,000 for Washington DC.”
“Meanwhile, Bogotá had a homicide rate of 15.2 and Lima saw 7.7 per 100,000,” the newspaper said.
The per capita homicide rates in 2024 in Baltimore and Chicago, both of which are governed by the Democratic Party, were significantly higher than the murder rate in Mexico City last year, according to data published by the Reforma newspaper.
While criminal groups certainly operate in Mexico City, Miller’s claim that the Mexican capital is “run by criminal cartels” is not supported by evidence.
Sheinbaum: CDMX is ‘not what this person probably imagines’
Asked about Miller’s remarks at her Tuesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum said that she had asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Security to send data on homicides in Mexico City to the White House official.
Miller is “probably” unaware of data showing that murders in Mexico City have declined in recent years, the president said.
“The reduction in homicides in Mexico City from 2018 to the current date is almost 60%,” said Sheinbaum, who was mayor of the capital between 2018 and 2023.
“… Yes, there are issues [in Mexico City] and they obviously have to be addressed … but it’s not what this person probably imagines,” she said.
“It’s important for him to know what has been done in Mexico City,” Sheinbaum said, referring to the security initiatives implemented during her mayorship as well as that of current Mayor Clara Brugada, who has a plan to make the capital “the most heavily monitored city in the Americas.”
“In addition to intelligence tasks, investigation and [security] collaboration with the government of Mexico, … [Brugada] is reinforcing the security quadrants,” she said, referring to an initiative that divides the city into hundreds of small security zones or quadrants, each with dedicated police patrols.
“… There is very important work to attend to security [problems] in the city,” Sheinbaum said.
“The perception of security [among residents of Mexico City] has increased a lot, or the perception of insecurity has decreased. So, it’s worth getting [this information to Miller],” she said.
Sheinbaum also said that Miller is probably unaware that a “significant number” of U.S. citizens live in Mexico City.
“So we have to get the information to him so that he knows that there is very good work to attend to insecurity in Mexico City,” she said.
