SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Florida’s governor came to Arizona Wednesday to promote a plan for states to beef up border enforcement. Ron DeSantis also explained why he thinks it’s justified to transport migrants to cities in California and the Northeast.
The border’s a natural and a constant issue here in Arizona but the Governor of Florida came here to offer his take on how to do things better.
Ron De Santis said, “We want to partner with all like minded sheriffs and governors around the country to create a coalition of people that actually do have the will to fight back against this problem.”
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling for states to step up because he says the Federal Government hasn’t.
He came to Cochise County and met with sheriffs from Florida, Texas, Idaho and Arizona. He says Florida has sent National Guard and law enforcement to help border states reduce illegal immigration and drug smuggling with the idea that border problems become every state’s problem.
Though he’s running for President, Florida state employers worked on the visit, which was billed as state business, not a campaign stop.
DeSantis agreed with a Sheriff who suggested holding Mexico responsible for allowing masses of immigrants to cross Mexican territory on the way here.
He says, “We have different levers that we can push. And then to me that would just be a no brainer to be able to do it. And the cartels directly, obviously, are a huge, huge problem. I mean, they're responsible for killing in the last year, 10s of 1000s of Americans. I mean, are you kidding me? You know this is to just turn a blind eye to it and do nothing, and it's a complete and utter failure.”
De Santis is not apologizing to cities and states upset that he paid to transport migrants there.
“If there's a policy to have an open border, then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones that have to bear that.”
DeSantis criticized what he calls bogus asylum claims and says people should be rejected for asylum if they did not seek asylum in the first country they entered as they left their home country. That’s actually a requirement the Biden Administration said it would impose after Title 42 enforcement was lifted.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.