Democrats push back on Trump’s drug, cartel crackdown
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Drug overdose deaths in the United States fell by more than 20% last year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amid President Donald Trump's crackdown on the country's porous borders.
"The fall begins at the end of the Biden administration, but the question is, was it in anticipation of a tough-on-crime president coming in?" said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
According to the data, which looked at deaths through August 2025, they were on the rise going into Trump's first term but remained largely flat, then they spiked and plateaued when President Joe Biden took office.
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Migrants walk a path moments after crossing the Rio Grande river from Mexico to the United States at the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
While the CDC did not provide a reason for the decline, it coincides with stronger border enforcement.
"Securing the borders has a lot to do with the drop," Giacalone told Fox News Digital. "Less chance for drug dealers and their mules to bring drugs into the country."
Data from the CDC shows US overdose deaths between January 2015 and August 2025. (CDC)
Amid steep criticism, the Biden administration eventually stepped up border enforcement near the end of his term, and the decline accelerated when Trump returned to office.
Groups of migrants of different nationalities arrive at the Rio Grande, to cross it and surrender to the American authorities on Feb. 19, 2024. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Other factors may include increased availability of opioid overdose antidotes, like Narcan, but Giacalone said he believes that nothing made a bigger impact than "shutting down the floodgates at the border."
"The jury is still out on the effect of blowing up drug boats, but I can imagine it working as a deterrent as well," he added. "Deterrence matters in criminal justice policy."
The CDC noted that the data is provisional because some causes of death are still under investigation.
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Customs and Border Protection officers in Arizona seized 65 pounds of methamphetamine and five pounds of fentanyl pills in a January 14 bust, according to authorities. (CBP)
Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Wyoming and the District of Columbia saw drops of more than 30%.
Broken down regionally, only five states did not see a decline in overdose deaths.
North Dakota remained flat. Kansas and Hawaii both saw increases in deaths of less than 2%. New Mexico rose by about 3.5%.
President Donald Trump has taken a series of actions to crackdown on fentanyl flowing in the U.S. since his return to the Oval Office in January 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Only Arizona saw a substantial increase — with fatal overdoses climbing 17.75% between August 2024 and 2025.
That spike came after authorities revealed in 2023 that fentanyl overdoses were killing three people a day in Maricopa County.
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Authorities in the Grand Canyon State have cracked down on fentanyl dealers in an effort to counter the trend there.
Maricopa prosecutors have identified fentanyl awareness as one of their top initiatives and are aggressively using a new state law to go after dealers whose drugs kill people.
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