Jess Anderson, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said the department’s top priorities this year are combatting illegal fentanyl distribution, addressing immigration-linked criminal networks and responding to homelessness.

Anderson made the remarks during a podcast interview, saying Utah was one of five states with a growing overdose rate from fentanyl last fall while the national trend was improving. "Per capita you're at about 18 per 100,000," she said, describing the state’s overdose metric and adding that fentanyl appears across a range of seized drugs as a poly-drug threat.

The department runs 13 divisions, Anderson said, and works with federal, county and local partners on enforcement and policy. "We will arrest individuals for drug distribution," she said, and noted that more than half of people arrested for drug distribution in some cases were identified as undocumented immigrants. She described the trafficking as a "well organized" business model tied to cartels she named as Sinaloa and Jalisco.

Anderson said deportation has not stopped the cycle: people arrested and deported often reappear within weeks, after repaying smugglers. "They take a debt to their boss, which is these drug cartels. And now they're indebted and in exchange for that debt, they have to come up and work by selling the product," she said.

She said the department is coordinating with federal partners and local law enforcement on policies that may come from the upcoming legislative session to disrupt the cartels' business model and reduce illegal distribution in the state.

Anderson also reported geographic spread of the problem: "That per capita is the exact same in rural Utah as it is along the urban Wasatch front," she said, indicating officials see fentanyl impacts statewide.

On homelessness, Anderson grouped the issue with immigration and fentanyl as overlapping challenges that the department is preparing to address alongside lawmakers. She did not specify particular funding levels or bills the department will seek; she said only that the department and governor's office are aligned on the three priorities going into the legislative session, which begins next week.

Why it matters: Anderson framed fentanyl as a public-health and public-safety crisis that is affecting rural and urban Utah alike, and described a law-enforcement view that trafficking networks exploit immigration patterns and the deportation cycle. Her remarks indicate the Department of Public Safety will press for policies and interagency work this legislative session.

The interview was conducted on a podcast; Anderson spoke as commissioner and as the governor’s homeland security adviser. She gave no specific bill numbers, dollar amounts, or legislative text during the interview.