Gov. Ron DeSantis is sending more than 1,000 personnel from Florida, including 800 Florida National Guard members, to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
The move is needed to help Texas deal with an influx of immigrants, which he claimed were caused by President Joe Biden’s lax border policies.
“The impacts of Biden’s Border Crisis are felt by communities across the nation, and the federal government’s abdication of duty undermines the sovereignty of our country and the rule of law,” DeSantis said in a released statement.
“At my direction, state agencies including law enforcement and the Florida National Guard are being deployed to Texas, with assets including personnel, boats and planes. While Biden ignores the crisis he created, Florida stands ready to help Texas respond to this crisis.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to 49 other Governors Tuesday asking for assistance in dealing with the surge of migrants at his border after the end of Title 42, a COVID-19-era regulation allowing the federal government to immediately expel migrants. But the COVID-19 pandemic emergency regulations ended earlier this month.
Biden administration officials have said the initial influx after the end of Title 42 has subsided, but Abbott and other immigration hard-liners have said the crisis is sapping resources.
“With the end of Title 42 expulsions, President Biden’s own administration estimates that at least 150,000 migrants are waiting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and enter our country illegally,” Abbott wrote in the letter.
“The flood of illegal border activity invited by the Biden Administration flows directly across the southern border into Texas communities, but this crisis does not stop in our state. Emboldened Mexican drug cartels and other transnational criminal enterprises profit off this chaos, smuggling people and dangerous drugs like fentanyl into communities nationwide.”
In addition to the National Guard members, DeSantis is sending 101 Florida Highway Patrol troopers, 200 Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers, 20 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, 20 emergency management personnel, five aircraft, two mobile command vehicles, 17 drones and 10 boats.
The cost to Florida isn’t yet known, but DeSantis also sent troops and law enforcement officers in 2021 when Abbott sent a request to Governors for assistance.
The post Gov. DeSantis sends National Guard, other personnel to Texas border appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..