July 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed bipartisan legislation that attempts to curb the illegal flow of fentanyl into the United States by reclassifying the opioid as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act.

Trump appeared in the White House’s East Room with supporters, including members of Congress and three people who described the deaths of family members from the opioid.

The Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act, enacts harsher penalties for those convicted of offenses related to the drug.

Under the law, fentanyl-related substances are triggered by the same quantity thresholds as analogues — 100 grams or more and a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

During Trump’s first term in office, fentanyl analogues were temporarily listed as under Schedule 1. Analogues are substances chemically similar to the regular drug.

“This is a very special time because we’ve worked very hard to put ourselves in this position,” Trump said. “Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers and criminal cartels that we’ve all been hearing so much about for so many years and little has been done.

“And we take a historic step toward justice for every family member touched by the fentanyl scourge.”

Ann Funder, who spoke to the Republican National Convention last July, lost her 15-year-old son Watson in 2022 to fentanyl poisoning. Gregory Swan’s son Drew died in 2013, also from fentanyl poisoning, and he formed Fentanyl Fathers, who tell their tragic stories to high schools nationwide. Jacqueline Siegel founded Victoria Voice after the 2015 death of her 18-year-old daughter, Victoria, to a fentanyl overdose; and her sister died from cocaine laced with fentanyl this year.

The bill overwhelmingly passed in both chambers: 321-104 in the House and 84-16 in the Senate.

President Joe Biden supported the legislation, but it stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“Despite tens of thousands of Americans dying from fentanyl overdose each year, Democrats refused to pass this commonsense bill when they controlled Congress and the White House,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said after the passage on June 12. “I’m proud to see Republicans take real action to combat the fentanyl crisis, advance life-saving research and support our brave men and women in blue.”

“I want to thank President Trump for his continued commitment to keeping illicit substances out of our country, and the HALT Fentanyl Act works directly in line with that mission,” U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said Wednesday. “As the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I’m proud to have been a part of creating such critical legislation that permanently places fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act to ensure law enforcement can crack down on drug traffickers that have wrought havoc on our communities for too long.”

The bill established an alternative registration process for certain Schedule 1 research.

Nine major medical associations, more than 40 major advocacy groups and law enforcement groups representing 1 million officers supported the bill.

In 2024, there were 48,422 deaths involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl in the United States with 76,282 in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, it was just 3,017 overdoses.

Trump has tied some tariffs on imported goods to the flow of fentanyl from other countries, including China, Canada and Mexico.

“Six months ago, we came into office and inherited the worst drug crisis in American history by far,” Trump said. “They did nothing. For four long years, Joe Biden surrendered our borders to the most evil and vicious traffickers, and networks and everything else on the planet Earth, allowing foreign drug cartels to carve out a massive footprint on American soil. … This open borders nightmare flooded our country with fentanyl and with people that shouldn’t be here.”

He has designated the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And on his first day in office on Jan. 20, ordered the creation of Homeland Security task forces on illegal drugs.

Through June, there have been 9,200 pounds of fentanyl seized with 21,900 for the entire 2024 at the border.

Last month, were a record-low 8,024 U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions. In December 2023, there were 251,178 apprehensions.