JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Jacksonville on Thursday morning and spoke about what he called the urgent need to secure the southern border to prevent illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
DeSantis said for the first time the state is planning to send members of the Florida State Guard to the Texas border, the volunteer force revived by DeSantis in 2022 that now has over 1,500 members.
The state is also sending at least one battalion of the Florida National Guard, about 1,000 soldiers. These deployments are in addition to the more than 90 officers from the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that are currently deployed to the border, DeSantis said. Since 2021, Florida has provided direct law enforcement and military assistance to Texas, including FLNG, which supported the Texas Military Department through mission sets including static observation points, roving patrols and engineer assistance with obstacle improvement. FHP has made contact with nearly 150,000 migrants, conducted over 27,000 traffic stops, resulting in 2,102 Human Smuggling or Human Trafficking charges with 2,278 overall arrests.
DeSantis said the goal is to help Texas fortify its border and the state guard will work to strengthen the barricades and help add barriers.
“If we don’t have a border then we are not a sovereign country. You either have a border or you don’t you’re either a sovereign country or you’re not. So what we’re doing today is we’re stepping up yet again, we’re helping and I know other states have done a lot and I’m pretty sure some of these other states are going to do more. But what Joe Biden’s administration has done is wrong. What they continue to try to do is wrong,” DeSantis said.
Florida is one of 25 states with Republican governors that have pledged to support Texas in its goal of preventing migrants from crossing the border into the United States.
President Biden over the weekend said he would support a bipartisan bill that would give him the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control.
