STOP Act 2.0: New Federal Crime Targets Lying on Customs Forms with Up to 5 Years in Prison

The STOP Act 2.0 is a serious update to customs enforcement, primarily aimed at choking off the flow of illicit drugs, like fentanyl, entering the U.S. through international mail. This isn’t just a tweak to existing rules; it introduces a brand-new federal crime and significantly ratchets up the pressure on foreign shippers and postal services. If you ship anything internationally or depend on the global supply chain, this bill is setting the stage for a major operational shift.

The New Paperwork Crime: Up to 5 Years for a Lie

Section 2 is the big one, introducing a criminal penalty for mail fraud that involves lying about a package’s country of origin on customs paperwork. If you knowingly commit mail fraud and lie about where that international package came from, you can face up to five years in federal prison, plus fines. This is a specific, enhanced penalty layered on top of existing mail fraud laws (SEC. 2).

This provision gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to seize and forfeit any international mail shipment where this origin misrepresentation occurs. Think about it: a small business owner who might make an honest mistake on a complex customs form—or worse, a shipper who knowingly fudges the details to dodge tariffs or regulations—now faces federal prison time and the loss of their goods. While the intent is clearly to catch drug traffickers and counterfeiters, the broad language means anyone who knowingly lies on that form is now facing a severe new risk.

No More Data Exemptions for Foreign Mail

Currently, the government has the power to exempt certain countries from the requirement that they send 100% of the advance electronic shipping data for their mail shipments. This data is crucial because it allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to screen packages before they even arrive (SEC. 3).

The STOP Act 2.0 ends that carve-out. The authority to grant these exemptions will be completely terminated five years after this bill becomes law. This means that within five years, every single country shipping mail to the U.S. will be required to provide that complete, advance electronic data for every package. For countries that currently rely on those exemptions, this is a five-year countdown to a mandatory, expensive system upgrade. For you, the consumer, this is good news for security, but it could potentially translate to administrative headaches and slowdowns for mail coming from those non-compliant regions during the transition period.

Accountability and Tech Partnerships

The bill also mandates serious oversight and new tech development. Section 4 replaces the old reporting rules with a detailed annual report from DHS to Congress. This report must break down how well the data requirements are being met, assess the quality of the information received from foreign postal operators, and detail how many searches CBP requested based on that data (SEC. 4).

Crucially, this report requires a comparison of compliance rates between packages shipped via the U.S. Postal Service and those shipped by private carriers, which will shine a light on where the weaknesses are in the system. Furthermore, the bill allows for public-private partnerships between DHS, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster General to develop technology specifically aimed at tracking the origin of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids (SEC. 5). This focus on tech and data quality is essential if the government is serious about using these data requirements to stop drug trafficking, rather than just generating more paperwork.