I blame Biden’s border crisis for my teen’s fentanyl death, and thank Trump for trying to end this scourge

I am a mother of four, but I’ll forever be haunted by the loss of my firstborn son, Weston. Weston was 15 when a fentanyl-laced pill poisoned him in 2022. 

My son wasn’t an addict; he was a vibrant, active teenager with a big heart. He attended church twice a week, played football and hockey, surfed in the Pacific, and had a laugh that could light up a room. 

I tried to be the best mom I could be, cheering him on at his games, cooking family dinners, volunteering at school, but none of that was enough to save him from the poison tearing our country apart.  

Weston’s death wasn’t an overdose; it was a poisoning. Like so many teens, he wanted to fit in and made one mistake of taking a pill from a friend, thinking it was safe. One pill. One mistake. That’s all it took to rob us of his future and steal my son from our family. 

I REPRESENT A BORDER DISTRICT THAT WAS SWAMPED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. WHAT I’M SEEING NOW MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

Because of the previous administration’s bad border policies, our kids can no longer learn from their mistakes; now they die from them.

I hold Joe Biden and every Democrat who champions open borders accountable for my son’s death. Every single one!

When Biden took office in 2021, we were living in Southern California, and he flung the doors to our country wide open. Our borders became a highway for chaos as cartels, traffickers and fentanyl poured in. I never imagined it would one day take my son from me. That was never going to happen in my house; that’s something you only saw on the news. 

But the policies of Biden and his “border czar,” Kamala Harris, turned a blind eye to the poison flooding our streets. They allowed this to happen, and families like mine paid for their reckless policy.  

MEXICO BROKE INTERNATIONAL LAW WITH THE CARTELS AND AMERICANS SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

Illicit fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 and is responsible for nearly 70% of the 110,000 “overdose” deaths we see each year in this country. One pill… just one pill, can end a life. Weston’s death is proof of that. 

It’s not about addiction; it’s about a supply so deadly and addictive, it’s inescapable. And where does it come from? Mexico, with its cartels running unchecked; Canada, where fentanyl labs are popping up under lax oversight; and China, which is shipping the chemicals that fuel this nightmare. For too long, these countries did nothing while our children died.  

That’s why I’m so grateful to President Donald Trump. He’s taking the fentanyl crisis seriously, something I wish we’d seen when Weston was still alive. President Trump is implementing tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China to hold them accountable for allowing this poison to flow freely into our country. 

He’s not just talking about the problem; President Trump is hitting these nations where it hurts: right in their wallets. The president doesn’t think they’ve done enough, and neither do I. Mexico’s government coddles cartels. Canada is allowing labs to proliferate. China is flooding the market with precursors. Enough is enough!  

FOUR TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR FOUR ‘SANCTUARY CITY’ MAYORS

These tariffs are an emboldened wake-up call to force accountability. They say to our neighbors and trading partners: stop the drugs, or pay the price. 

Some critics complain about the costs of these tariffs, but I ask, what is the cost of a child’s life? What value do you put on my child and on the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their lives on American soil under the last administration? 

I’d pay anything to have Weston back, and President Trump understands that. He’s a father and a fighter, using America’s economic muscle to protect families like mine. This isn’t about politics; it’s about survival. 

I think about my Weston every day. He should be 18 now, planning his future, his college path, what he wants to major in, not reduced to a name on a headstone. Biden’s open borders let this poison in, but Trump’s tariffs are a step toward shutting it out.  

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It’s too late for my son, but it’s not too late for yours. The fentanyl crisis has taken too many, with hundreds of thousands of American lives stolen by an illicit drug, a poison that seems unstoppable. 

President Trump is showing he’s willing to try something different, something tough. For that, I say: Thank you, Mr. President, thank you. Keep fighting!