For too many Washington bureaucrats, American border security is reduced to a narrow, checklist exercise — counting crossings and manning checkpoints while ignoring the torrent of illicit goods and other poisons flooding our communities.
But during my time at the Department of Homeland Security, I saw a fundamental shift: Border Patrol was no longer operating in isolation. President Donald Trump implemented a true whole-of-government strategy that proactively identified and neutralized threats before they reached the American interior. At long last, even the Food and Drug Administration is stepping up to meet the moment.
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Retail data reveal that FDA-unauthorized and illegal products account for 86.3% of all e-cigarette sales. The marketplace is saturated with thousands of unauthorized vaping products that flooded our borders during the Biden administration. The vast majority of these items originate from the People’s Republic of China, often by entities with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
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These are not products that have undergone the rigorous Pre-Market Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) process required by law. Instead, they are illicit goods that bypass our standards, frequently arriving at our ports mislabeled or hidden within legitimate cargo to evade Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspections.
The Trump administration announced that Operation Red Mist confiscated over 18 million unauthorized units with an estimated retail value exceeding $175 million during operations. One seizure of 3 million units, valued at $76 million, represented 4% of China’s monthly e-cigarette exports to the United States. The Trump administration’s Operation Vape Trail seized more than 2.3 million vape devices and cartridges and more than 100 weapons in just one week.
The FDA’s recent issuance of enforcement guidance targeting the unauthorized electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is a major step in the broader battle for American sovereignty and public health. The FDA is finally taking the MAHA mandate to the front lines of our ports of entry and retail shelves.
The guidance is a strike against the shadow market that has been allowed to fester for years. But in the world of large-scale enforcement operations, a change in guidance is an opening salvo, not a fatal blow. For this effort to succeed, the FDA must be prepared to launch and sustain a relentless maximum pressure campaign. America needs an enduring siege against the illicit Chinese and Cartel supply chains currently poisoning our communities.
The FDA’s new guidance correctly prioritizes enforcement against these unauthorized products, but the next Commissioner must go further. We need to see a massive escalation in field operations. A warning guidance letter is often treated as a mere cost of doing business by a foreign-backed shell company. What is required is the physical seizure of illicit inventory, the pursuit of permanent injunctions against repeat offenders, and the imposition of civil money penalties that are punitive enough to disrupt the CCP profit motive.
Trump and the Republican Congress funded $200 million to the FDA last year to surge enforcement of illicit Chinese vapes. Recently, the House Oversight Committee rightly asked the FDA where that funding is going and how quickly it is ramping up enforcement. The time for action is now.
The FDA must break out of its traditional silo and work in permanent, daily coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and CBP. Our ports of entry are the first line of defense. We need dedicated task forces that combine the scientific expertise of the FDA with the investigative and interdiction power of the DHS. By sharing intelligence on shipping manifests and known illicit manufacturers, we can stop these products at the water’s edge rather than trying to play an endless game of whack-a-mole in thousands of convenience stores across fifty states.
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The MAHA movement is about reclaiming the health of the American people. It starts with the enforcement of our own laws. The Trump administration has provided a much-needed blueprint with the new guidance — what is needed now is swift execution. This leaves a real opportunity for the next FDA Commissioner to eschew administrative convenience and lead with public health and the law at the forefront. Protecting Americans from illicit foreign, unregulated vapes is a matter of national defense and public health.
By standing firm and refusing to turn our marketplace over to unauthorized foreign goods, we can ensure that American standards, not Chinese profit margins, dictate what is sold in our stores.
Tricia McLaughlin previously served as the Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman under the second Trump administration.
