Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Results for FY 2025: Protecting our Borders

Unauthorized goods entering the country can pose serious threats, introducing hazardous materials, counterfeit products, and environmentally damaging substances into America. These illegal imports also undermine domestic businesses and consumer trust. By securing our borders against such threats, we protect human health and the environment alongside upholding the integrity of our markets.  

Vigilant border protection ensures that only goods meeting rigorous safety and quality standards enter the country.  

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stopped illegal imports at the border through 469 Notice of Refusal of Admissions under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), four Toxic Substances and Control Act (TSCA) conclusions, and other actions to prevent the illegal import of toxic pesticides, waste, and chemicals. In total, EPA blocked nearly 1.4 million pounds of illegal pesticides from entering the United States.  

Criminal investigations into smuggling at ports of entry resulted in 11 charged and sentenced defendants in FY 2025, helping to secure the U.S. border and combat transnational criminal organizations. EPA also visited 43 ports of entry and trained over 900 enforcement personnel across the federal government on the detection and interdiction of dangerous substances and illegal imports.  

In FY 2025, EPA also concluded three major Clean Air Act (CAA) settlements totaling approximately $600 million in penalties for the illegal import of uncertified and heavily polluting vehicles and seven settlements for illegal hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) imports under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act.  

In March 2025, EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a U.S. district court accepted Hino Motors Ltd.’s guilty plea and ordered the company to pay a criminal fine of over $521 million, serve five years’ probation, and forfeit $1 billion. Hino agreed to the guilty plea as part of a global resolution, including to resolve civil CAA violations. As part of the civil settlement, Hino agreed to pay a $525 million civil penalty and will spend an estimated $300 million to offset the excess emissions caused by its illegal activities. Hino will also implement a vehicle recall program for model year 2017-2019 engines. 

Hino admitted to engaging in a multi-year criminal conspiracy to defraud both the United States government and American consumers by illicitly importing engines that did not meet CAA standards into the country. The company systematically falsified emissions data and concealed software functions affecting emission controls from 2010 to 2019, leading to the import and sale of over 105,000 non-compliant engines installed in heavy-duty trucks nationwide. Hino’s criminal conduct gave it an unfair business advantage over law-abiding American companies. The sentence and civil settlement demonstrate that companies who knowingly import illegal products and endanger public health for economic gain will be held civilly and criminally accountable. For more information on the civil and criminal enforcement activity in this case read: (1) Hino Pleads Guilty and Pay Over $1.6B to Resolve Emissions Fraud Scheme press release, (2) Court sentences Hino Motors and-Imposes-over-$1.6 billion in penalties press release, and (3) Hino Motors Clean Air Act Settlement Summary webpage.