On National Fentanyl Awareness Day, DHS Thanks Customs and Border Protection for Stopping More Than 12,000 Pounds of Fentanyl from Flowing into American Communities

WASHINGTON -- The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is observing National Fentanyl Awareness Day by remembering the lives that the illicit drug has destroyed and by honoring the men and women who are seizing this deadly poison before it enters our communities and kills Americans.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid often laced in other illicit drugs and has an extremely high potency - between 50 and 100 times the strength of morphine - with rapid effects for users.

For many years, cartels and other transnational criminal networks took advantage of the open-border policies of the last administration and flooded our country with this poison, resulting in tens of thousands of avoidable American deaths. In 2023, under the Biden Administration, fentanyl took the lives of nearly 73,000 people - equivalent to a sold-out football stadium - while destroying multitudes of families.

Now, under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, DHS has delivered the most secure border in American history, severely crippling the cartels' efforts to bring deadly drugs into the U.S. Since President Trump returned to office in January of 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized 12,743 pounds of fentanyl.

"The Biden administration left our border wide open for drug cartels to pour drugs into country and profit off of killing Americans. Under President Trump, we are dismantling drug cartels. Thanks to our secure border, we have cut down the flow of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into our communities," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "We have saved countless American lives by stopping these poisons from entering the country."

A powerful reason for officers and agents' laser-focused attention to securing our border and combatting fentanyl is Angel Mothers like Anne Fundner, whose 15-year-old son, Weston, died after unknowingly taking a fentanyl-laced pill. In August, Fundner stood next to President Trump as he signed into law the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, which classifies fentanyl-related substances under Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act. This legislation gives law enforcement agencies like CBP and HSI greater authority to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and requires stiffer penalties for traffickers.

For more information on what DHS and its components are doing to stop the devasting effects of fentanyl on American communities, visit https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/frontline-against-fentanyl.

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