Ron DeSantis announces State Guard deployment to Mexican border, expanding his armed force’s mission

Gov. Ron DeSantis will be deploying a battalion of the Florida State Guard to the U.S.-Mexican border to deal with what he calls a “total disaster.”

“The goal is to help Texas fortify this border,” DeSantis said, noting it was the first deployment of the group he reformed recently.

The announcement in Jacksonville reflects his continued commitment to spotlighting illegal immigration, a subject he has often revisited in the city, and one that was central to his recent failed presidential campaign.

“We need to stop this invasion at the southern border once and for all,” the Governor said to applause.

Last month, the Governor teased sending the State Guard to the border to supplement state efforts over the course of the last few years since Joe Biden was elected President, saying the advantage of the state-run group was it couldn’t be “federalized.”

The Governor blamed Biden for opening the border, saying the effect was to “invite people to come in.”

“It’s as bad as it’s ever been at the southern border,” DeSantis said, vowing to be “helpful” to Texas.

Whether this deployment is strictly within the State Guard’s mission is an open question. The group’s website suggests a more limited mission: “State guards are authorized under Title 32 of the U.S. Code and operate distinctly from the National Guard. They are state-funded, responsive to the Governor and focused on the needs of their home state.”

It is unclear how an out-of-state deployment comports with that limited scope.

As a presidential candidate, DeSantis said he would not only deploy federal troops to the border, but reserved the right to kill certain crossers.

“If somebody were breaking into your house to do something bad, you would respond with force. Yet why don’t we do that at the Southern border? So if the cartels are cutting through the border wall, trying to run product into this country, they’re going to end up stone-cold dead as a result of that bad decision,” DeSantis declared this summer in Texas.

His aggressive immigration agenda included sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat cartels. It’s uncertain whether that’s the case with this deployment, which will see the State Guard supplement other deployments from Florida.

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