Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is sending National Guardsmen to the Texas border to support Governor Greg Abbott’s effort to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
DeSantis, who ended his 2024 presidential campaign two weeks ago, has promised to deploy at least 1,000 troops to the United States-Mexico border. In addition to the National Guard, this will mark the first deployment of the Florida State Guard.
The governor accused President Joe Biden of “opening the southern border” as soon as he took office and of issuing a number of executive orders to not just "have the border be fortified but really to invite people to come in.”
“It is as bad as it’s ever been at the southern border,” said DeSantis at a press conference on Feb. 1. “We understood this problem in Florida right at the beginning of 2021.”
DeSantis visited the Texas-Mexico border in July of 2021 and sent both state law enforcement officers and members of the Florida National Guard to assist with the border crisis. During the visit, he commended Abbott for “stepping up where the federal government won’t,” per Florida Latam World of Business.
He also sent 800 soldiers, 200 Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, 101 state troopers and 20 wildlife officers to assist Texas border patrol in May of 2023 as well as five planes, 17 drones, two command vehicles and 10 boats.
“Biden has the authority to close this border today if he wanted to,” said DeSantis during today’s announcement. “He lacks the will to get the job done. He lacks the capacity to see the problem for what it is. … So the American people are basically left scrambling.”
“I believe that a state has the right to fortify its own borders. … So, if Texas is helping to erect barriers, putting up razor wire, doing other things to keep illegal aliens out, I want to be helpful to them doing that,” he continued. “I don’t want to be part of the federal government trying to tear down these barriers and let more people in illegally. This is crazy that this is the case.”
DeSantis said that the states need to “band together to be able to defend the rule of law.” He described the burden the mass arrival of illegal immigrants has on hospitals, schools and other community resources, at one point speculating that 10 million criminal aliens have arrived under Biden’s leadership.
“Even if that were legal, we cannot absorb that many people,” DeSantis said. “It is just not the way you do business. It is not the way you run a country."
“If we don’t have a border, then we are not a sovereign country,” he warned.
Abbott released his statement declaring his state’s right to self-defense “is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary” on Jan. 24, immediately garnering widespread support from other Republicans. At least 25 governors pledged to support Texas with its effort. By Jan. 26, 10 states – including Oklahoma, Idaho, and Montana – had deployed National Guardsmen or state troopers to the southern border.
