TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that he is sending more than 1,100 state law enforcement officers and National Guard members to the south Texas border with Mexico. The number is a significant increase compared to the last time the governor made such a move in 2021, and it comes just weeks before his expected presidential launch.
DeSantis has signaled for weeks that he was preparing an immigration-focused ad while reinvigorating his war of words on the issue with President Joe Biden, whose administration recently allowed the lapse of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that did easier to expel immigrants.
«Communities across the country are feeling the impacts of the Biden border crisis, and the federal government’s abdication of duty undermines our country’s sovereignty and the rule of law,» DeSantis said in a statement.
What DeSantis will send:
- 800 members of the Florida National Guard
- 200 officers (in teams of 40) from the state Law Enforcement Department
- 101 State Highway Troopers
- 20 agents from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Department of Emergency Management
- 5 fixed-wing aircraft
- 17 unmanned drones
- 10 floating boats
The numbers are a significant increase from the last time DeSantis sent law enforcement to the southern border. In June 2021, DeSantis dispatched just over 100 Florida law enforcement officers for six weeks to help with what he called at the time «a southern border catastrophe under the Biden Administration.» Those officers came mostly from the Florida Highway Patrol, the Department of Law Enforcement and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The state personnel in that case were sent after Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott made an Emergency Management Assistance Compact request, prompting Republican governors across the country, including DeSantis, to send state resources to the southern border.
Abbott said in a statement shortly after DeSantis’s announcement that he sent letters to all 50 governors requesting «support in responding to the ongoing border crisis.»
In recent weeks, DeSantis has once again broadened his focus on immigration. Last week, he signed a measure intended to discourage immigrants from coming to Florida, just one day before Title 42 was set to expire.
In January, he signed an executive order deploying the Florida National Guard to respond to the hundreds of Cuban immigrants arriving in South Florida. That’s in addition to more than $20 million the Republican-dominated Legislature has given it to help expand a migrant transportation program that sparked controversy last September when it was used to transport 50 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
Additionally, DeSantis has spent more time during public appearances on immigration, even when the events are unrelated. For example, he opened a Friday press conference held to sign banking legislation with Title 42 comments.
“Biden can’t just release all these people in our country who are here illegally,” DeSantis said Friday. «Maybe it’ll make them look inward and say, ‘Maybe we’ll start doing our job and protect the American people for a change.'»
The immigration focus comes against the political backdrop of DeSantis soon to launch a presidential campaign.
NBC News has reported that the announcement is likely to come within the next two weeks, in part because DeSantis’ political operation has moved its headquarters. That move led them to spend federal campaign funds, which will give them 15 days to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.