Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to treat the U.S. border with Mexico like a war zone.
The presidential candidate reiterated to NBC News that he plans to authorize lethal force against drug cartels entering the U.S.
Reporter Dasha Burns asked DeSantis about prior statements that cartel members will “end up stone cold dead” if they try to run drugs over the border.
“Under a DeSantis administration, would anyone crossing the border illegally potentially face deadly force from law enforcement?” Burns asked.
DeSantis said he wants the border treated like a war zone.
“It’s similar to, like, if you’re in the military. You have rules of engagement,” DeSantis said. “Anyone that’s hostile intent or a hostile act, which cartels are, you know, you would then engage with lethal force. I think these cartels are basically foreign terrorist organizations. They are responsible for killing more Americans on an annual basis than any other group or country throughout the entire world.”
DeSantis said he would trust Border Patrol agents and other federal forces at the border to discern drug runners from refugees. The same thing happens in war-torn countries, he said, citing recent U.S. occupations in the Middle East.
“These people in Iraq at the time, they all looked the same. You didn’t know who had a bomb strapped to them. So those guys have to make judgments. But the fact that we’re going to stop the phony asylum claims and stop the invasion, that’s going to be half of it.”
He said voters in states like New Hampshire feel strongly about the Mexican border. Despite geographic distance, an influx of fentanyl has created problems nationwide, DeSantis said.
“You can find these angel mothers who’ve lost children to fentanyl overdose in virtually any community in the United States,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis described a situation where he would be fine with Border Patrol opening fire on someone trying to cross the border. He alluded to a recent trip to Arizona when he saw U.S. officials repairing damage to the barrier with Mexico.
“These guys are working on the wall. I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ They’re like, ‘We’re repairing the hole the cartels cut through the steel beams,’” DeSantis said.
“So if you see that happening, and they’ve got the satchel of fentanyl strapped to their back, you use deadly force against them, you lay them out, you will see a change of behavior. You have to take the fight to the cartels. Otherwise we’re going to continue to see Americans dying.”
And he made clear that even in areas where refugee families try to cross the border, Border Patrol must keep an eye out for gangs and drug trade.
“The cartels will use the children and they will use the families to help camouflage the illicit activity,” he said.
In Florida, he said law enforcement knows of instances where mothers “rent out children to military-age males” because it’s better to cross the border with a child.
“What kind of a policy is this that is incentivizing that type of behavior?” he said. “So what we’re going to do, we’re going to stop it.”
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