The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) never created a mandatory data collection program to evaluate whether its fentanyl enforcement operations at the southern border are actually effective, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Per the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, the Secretary of Homeland Security was responsible for creating the program, which was meant to be the basis for subsequent DHS reports to Congress. The same Act also tasked GAO with conducting the audit, which took place between June 2024 and September 2025.
“DHS has not established a program to collect data and develop measures to assess the effectiveness of efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking into the US … as required,” the audit states. “As a result, DHS’s ability to fully understand the effectiveness of these efforts is limited.”
The audit focuses on Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the two DHS agencies that oversee the most fentanyl interdiction operations. According to GAO, the data collection and reporting requirements were “delegated” to CBP—which presented a problem, because CBP only has access to its own data, not that of HSI or other agencies. As a result, the first DHS report to Congress didn’t include data from the rest of DHS; just CBP.
CBP leadership reportedly forewarned GAO of this issue during the audit period, telling investigators that their agency “should not be responsible for establishing the program.” The audit describes several interactions with DHS leadership that amount to them saying that sounds like CBP’s problem.
“In addition to not establishing the statutorily required data and measures program, DHS has not developed performance goals and measures that relate to its long-term strategic goals for its efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking,” the report continues. “As a result, DHS’s ability to assess progress toward its strategic goals is limited.”
Officials told GAO that they didn’t establish these objectives because they were working off of the ones established by the National Security Council. But as GAO noted, the latter pertain to the much broader fentanyl enforcement goals of the federal government as a whole, “not the specific results that DHS wants to achieve through its own efforts.”
Raw numbers don’t show that fentanyl seizures accomplish anything. They just show that they happen.
CBP and HSI produce a lot of data on their seizures of fentanyl, and related supply-chain materials like precursor chemicals and manufacturing equipment. But despite the narrative often presented in agency press announcements and by the media, raw numbers don’t in and of themselves show that fentanyl seizures accomplish anything. They just show that they happen.
Officials from DHS, CBP and HSI all said as much in interviews with GAO investigators. Some acknowledged that higher numbers of fentanyl seizures don’t necessarily represent more effective enforcement; they might just represent increased supply. Others acknowledged that the current downward trend in fatal overdose can’t be definitively credited to anti-trafficking efforts, “because improvements could be attributed to other factors, such as increased drug education or access to overdose reversal medicine.”
GAO left Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with three recommendations for executive action. The first—obviously—is to establish the required data collection program. The second seems to accept that this task will be delegated, though GAO doesn’t quite say that, and suggests that whoever gets stuck with it should at least have access to data from the rest of the department. The third is for DHS to establish its own performance goals and measures, and presumably stop using the National Security Council’s.
DHS has agreed to all three. It expects to have the data collection program up and running by July 2026, “once the appropriate Component or headquarters office is identified.”
Image (cropped) via United States Government Accountability Office
