Eagle Pass, Texas
CNN
—
In his first major policy pitch of his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday proposed a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, including sending the U.S. military to the border and the mass detention and deportation of undocumented people.
DeSantis would also end birthright citizenship and build a wall on the southern border, reviving two ideas once championed by his main rival for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump.
The immigration platform as written offers a tough approach to the nation’s undocumented population and the southern border. As described by DeSantis, however, the enforcement would be even more severe and test the legal boundaries that have long defined who has the right to be in the United States and how the government can target those who don’t.
Speaking here in Eagle Pass on Monday, DeSantis said he would allow the use of lethal force against people trying to cross into the United States by cutting border structures. He agreed with one man in the audience who compared the flow of undocumented migrants to “an act of war” that would require a military response. DeSantis also proposed giving states the power to “declare an invasion” and deport people on their own.
US courts have repeatedly ruled that regulating immigration is a federal responsibility. That principle was apparently affirmed in part last week when the US Supreme Court sided 8-1 against Texas and Louisiana in their lawsuit over the Biden administration’s immigration arrest and deportation guidelines.
“If the feds have the responsibility to do immigration and they choose not to do it, then we’re helpless and we don’t have the laws enforced at all?” DeSantis said. “I think the states have a role to play. I can tell you as president, we will fully deputize all state and local governments to be able to enforce this.”
Through more relentless and austere immigration policies, including blocking most asylum cases, forcing people to stay in Mexico while their cases are reviewed, and threatening harsh punishments for illegal entrants , DeSantis insists he can stem the flow of migrants into the United States, a promise that will defy historical precedent.
“You’re going to see a huge, huge reduction in the number of people trying to do this in the future,” he said.
DeSantis’ early emphasis on immigration as a GOP presidential candidate is the Florida governor’s latest attempt to seize one of the defining issues in Trump’s policy playbook as his seat.
The slogan of his platform – “no excuses” – invokes DeSantis’ main criticism of Trump’s presidency as a period of broken promises. Over the weekend, his campaign tweeted a clip of Trump promising “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” with the comment: “Trump made good on that same promise in 2016, but ended deporting fewer illegals than Barack Obama.” Teasing the announcement over the weekend, the DeSantis campaign released a video blaming the state of the border on the Biden administration, but didn’t spare Trump’s four-year term when he criticized the perceived lack of of action during the last decade.
Trump, as a candidate in 2016, promised to build a wall on the southern border and have Mexico pay for it. He ended his first term having built about 100 miles of new wall, most of which replaced previous construction. Trump also said he would end so-called birthright citizenship, but he ran afoul of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which grants citizenship to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States.” He has revived the promise once again in his campaign to take back the White House.
DeSantis in his policy plan suggests that the plain reading of the 14th Amendment is “inconsistent with the original understanding” and says it would “force the courts and Congress to finally address the failed policy,” though he does not explain how.
Unlike Trump, DeSantis did not explicitly insist that Mexico will pay for a wall. But he said he will station troops at the border until it is complete and also says a DeSantis administration will collect “tax remittances from illegal aliens” and penalize countries that try to evade collection.
As DeSantis visited the border, the Trump campaign sent out a press release reiterating his promise to sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship. The campaign accused the Biden administration of botching its efforts to address the problem, a clear rebuttal to DeSantis’ suggestions that Trump didn’t do enough during his tenure.
Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser, tweeted side-by-side images: one of Trump standing next to a border wall and another of a photograph from a DeSantis campaign ad 2018 where he encourages his son to “build the wall.” The ad, which aired during the Republican primary for governor, focused on Trump’s endorsement of DeSantis.
“Ron DeSantis is the Fisher Price version of President Trump,” Miller said.
DeSantis, when asked how he differed from Trump, insisted he would make the border a priority from day one.
“For us, it will be a national emergency on day one. This will mobilize every asset available on day one. We have a plan for all the different levers of authority that we have to be able to accomplish this,” DeSantis said Monday in the Rio Grande River.
As governor, DeSantis has often entered the country’s immigration debate. Last September, he orchestrated two flights to transport migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in an operation that drew widespread condemnation from Democrats and immigration advocates but earned him considerable praise from the media conservatives It followed those efforts earlier this month with two more flights that sent migrants from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento, California. DeSantis in his four-plus years at the helm of Florida has also pushed through new laws banning sanctuary cities and requiring employers to check the eligibility of their workforce, and has sent Florida law enforcement and the National Guard to the southern border to assist in Texas enforcement efforts.
DeSantis has highlighted these efforts often on the campaign trail during his first month running for president. Monday’s announcement is his first attempt at a more forward-thinking approach to an issue that has vexed political leaders for decades.
As he has so far on other issues, DeSantis is promising a far-right approach to the rest of the GOP camp while promising to be more effective than Trump. It’s a strategy DeSantis allies have committed to as they navigate a divided GOP field and a base still enamored of the former president, even as Democrats hope the Florida governor will be less palpable to voters of the general elections.
“Ron DeSantis has repeatedly used young children and families as pawns in his shallow political stunts to curry favor with the MAGA base,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “This latest plan is more of the same: political gimmicks that are just an echo of the same heartless, callous policies of the Trump administration that broke our immigration system. DeSantis’ empty talking points are not distracting voters of the fact that his desperate MAGA candidacy is more concerned with appeasing the fringes of the right than solving the problems of the American people.
DeSantis also said he would end the so-called “catch and release” policy that allows some nonviolent people to live in the United States while they await a court hearing on their immigration and asylum applications. Instead, DeSantis’ proposal calls for detaining undocumented people until their hearing date, a policy that would likely lead to tens of thousands of people being held by the US government indefinitely.
DeSantis also promises to deport “criminal aliens.” His proposal did not say whether a “criminal alien” includes anyone who is not in the United States lawfully or undocumented people convicted of a crime while here. DeSantis would also deport people who overstay their visas. According to the Department of Homeland Security, about 850,000 foreign visitors overstayed their authorized stay in 2022 alone.
DeSantis also promised to hold Mexican drug cartels accountable by authorizing sanctions on leaders and other entities, as well as strengthening penalties for fentanyl traffickers and declaring them “transnational criminal organizations.”
“If the Mexican government drags its feet, DeSantis reserves the right to operate across the border to protect our territory from Mexican cartel activities. If the Mexican government does not stop the cartel’s drug manufacturing, DeSantis will increase resources to the Navy and Coast Guard and will block the entry of precursor chemicals into Mexican ports,” the proposal says.
Speaking Monday in Maverick County, Texas, he went further, saying his administration would authorize law enforcement to use lethal force against cartel operatives and migrants believed to be involved in illegal trafficking. ·legal drugs that breach the border wall.
“We’re going to use every lever at our disposal to win the fight,” DeSantis said. “If somebody is breaching the border wall, which they are doing in other parts, demonstrating hostile intent or hostile action, you have to be able to do that with the appropriate use of force.”
When pressed by a reporter if that meant shooting someone, DeSantis replied, “Of course, of course you use deadly force. I mean, how would you let someone come into your house and get hurt?
In addition, DeSantis will impose penalties on sanctuary jurisdictions that “try to thwart federal immigration law” by cutting them “hundreds of millions of dollars in grants.”
