Trump’s moves on fentanyl to save our children
OPINION:
When President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law on July 16, we didn’t just applaud another piece of legislation; we exhaled as parents who live in fear of fentanyl’s reach.
In that moment, we felt something that had been missing too long: hope.
For years, we have sat with families who have lost children to a single poisoned pill or a dusting of fentanyl laced into a counterfeit medication. That law didn’t just close a loophole. It also opened a door: to saving lives.
From the moment the Trump-Vance administration took office in January, we have seen what happens when leadership prioritizes safety, not politics. In just the first six months of this year, 193 million lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized across the United States. As of this writing, that staggering number includes more than 45 million fake pills and nearly 5,000 pounds of powdered fentanyl. Almost 3,000 traffickers have been taken off our streets. These aren’t just statistics; they are moments where death was stopped in its tracks.
For those of us who see the devastation of fentanyl up close — in our schools, churches and communities — these victories feel deeply personal. We imagine every drug seizure as a child who gets to grow up, every arrest as a family spared a funeral. There’s nothing abstract about it.
As parents, we live with the anxiety that one experiment, one mistake, could be the last our child ever makes, but in the first half of 2025, we have started to see the tide finally turn.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States is recording significant drops in overdose deaths compared with years before. These aren’t just a statistical trend, but a reversal of heartbreak. It means Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies, now in place, are actually working and lives are being saved.At the southern border, we have seen another dramatic shift. Through May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 54% drop in monthly fentanyl seizures from the final months of 2024. For years, seizures were going up because trafficking was out of control. Those numbers are finally decreasing for the right reasons, as less poison enters the country.
It’s not happening just at the border. In April, Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducted a single operation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that resulted in the seizure of 2.7 million fentanyl-laced pills. That one raid alone took enough poison off the streets to wipe out entire communities.
None of this happened by accident. These results are the product of clear leadership, empowered law enforcement and a whole-of-government strategy. The Trump-Vance administration has prioritized law and order with a mix of powerful tools, including aggressive enforcement, drone surveillance and tough tariffs on precursor chemicals coming from China. At every turn, the administration has backed law enforcement with the resources and clarity it needs to get the job done. As grassroots leaders, we see the difference in real time.
We talk every day to moms and dads who tell us they are sleeping a little better at night, not because the crisis is over but because, for the first time in a long time, they feel like someone is fighting for their children. That’s what leadership looks like. It doesn’t rely on speeches or sound bites. It delivers results that parents can feel.
Still, we know this fight isn’t over. Drug cartels are already adapting. Intelligence shows they are experimenting with harder-to-detect analogs and exploring new trafficking routes. That means we cannot afford to let up — not now, not ever. Continued funding for border agents, DEA labs, drone fleets and joint task forces is essential. We also need to keep expanding access to naloxone, treatment options and school-based prevention programs.
Congress must finish the job by fully implementing the HALT Fentanyl Act without compromise or delay.
• Jorge Martinez is senior adviser and national director of Hispanic outreach at the America First Policy Institute. Scarlett Johnson is a mother of four girls and Ozaukee County Chapter chair and Wisconsin ambassador for Moms for Liberty.