Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) hit back at California after the Democratic governor threatened to file charges over Florida’s paying for illegal immigrants at the border to be sent to the West Coast sanctuary state.
In his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border as a 2024 White House candidate, DeSantis blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) for being the leader of a state that was too broke to care for illegal immigrants despite it championing itself during the Trump years as a sanctuary that would welcome and protect people in violation of federal immigration laws.
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“They have a big budget deficit. We have a big budget surplus, and so we have an ability to do things like support police and help out Texas because we have a good managed state,” DeSantis said during a press conference in southern Arizona on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the White House rebuked DeSantis for paying to transport illegal immigrants by plane from the Texas border to Sacramento. Newsom threatened to charge DeSantis with kidnapping and false imprisonment.
DeSantis blamed the sanctuary cities for being part of the problem and enticing non-U.S. citizens to travel to the United States in the first place.
“These sanctuary jurisdictions are part of the reason we have this problem because they have endorsed and advocated for these types of open border policies,” DeSantis said. “They attacked the previous administration’s efforts to try to have border security.”
“When they have to deal with some of the fruits of that, they all of a sudden become very, very upset,” DeSantis said. “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 defended the migrant flights as a “very effective” way to deal with a border crisis on President Joe Biden‘s watch.
DeSantis visited Arizona and touted a new multistate initiative for Florida law enforcement to train police and sheriff’s departments in how to combat human smuggling and drug trafficking.
The announcement came weeks after Florida sent in 400 National Guard soldiers and dozens of state police to Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) requested help from states.
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“Over the last few years, we’ve all become border sheriffs,” said Sheriff Corey Helton of Lea County, New Mexico, who attended the meeting with DeSantis. “To have you on board, I greatly appreciate it.”
“In Florida, we could sit back and say, ‘Well, we’ll fight this in our backyard.’ But instead, we say, ‘Let’s fight it on the front. Let’s join together, let’s be united,’” added Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida. “Gov. DeSantis asked us to put our resources in to put our money where our mouth is. He’s done that.”
