A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor is back on the road and on offense as the week closes, with a press conference in Jacksonville highlighting the need for a Special Session on immigration.
The issue has been a point of ongoing contention between him and legislators who “need to put their money where their mouth is” rather than questioning the timing for the Session, DeSantis argued.
“How is it premature when we’ve been waiting four years for this moment?” asked Gov. Ron DeSantis. “There’s a mandate from the voters.”
He was on hand at the Sheriff’s Office to make his case, just hours after an extraordinary Zoom call mobilizing county Republican Executive Committees to press legislators to move forward in the first opportunity in four years to have federal partnership in the fight against illegal immigration and “be part of the solution.”
DeSantis lauded the Donald Trump administration as “federal partners” who “want to get the job done,” noting it’s incumbent on Florida to “implement this stuff” in support of the White House, to “help fill the void” between executive orders and legislative enactment of complementary laws on the federal level.
“But the reality is there’s only so much a state can do. You need the federal government to do its job,” DeSantis said.
“Well, now we saw Jan. 20, the total change in policy with respect to border and illegal immigration under the Trump 47 administration. So this is a great opportunity for our country, but certainly for people that have been complaining about Biden for the last four years, you want to now get in the fight and be part of the solution.”
DeSantis wants someone on the state level coordinating immigration enforcement with the feds; the latitude to “take and send back” illegals via an expanded migrant transport program; gang enforcement; removing illegal aliens from the right to in-state “tuition breaks”; E-Verify for remittances; safeguards against noncitizens voting; and a “rebuttable presumption” that illegal aliens are a “flight risk” and shouldn’t get bail.
DeSantis noted that illegal aliens often impose extra costs. For example, they are road risks, given “a lot of them don’t have insurance” and “they just run into you and leave you holding the bag.”
Rep. Kiyan Michael, a reliable DeSantis ally from the Jacksonville Beaches and an “angel mom” who lost her son to an illegal immigrant, stressed her support for the Session at the event.
“You’ve been ahead of everybody else,” the legislator said.
Dave Kerner, the Executive Director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, also spoke. Kerner lauded the “immediate about face” in federal enforcement since Trump took office, saying this “most Special Session” empowers law enforcement to stop people from sending remittances to drug cartels in Mexico.
“We need the legislature to properly fund and prepare us for the battle we are about to go into,” Kerner said, predicting a more aggressive “cartel strategy” against officers.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) Tallahassee Assistant Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno offered similar affirmations.
Waters noted that drug cartels were bringing hard drugs, like fentanyl and cocaine, into Duval County, illustrating the need for aggressive enforcement against “illegal immigration … a scourge on our society.”
Ingegno, meanwhile, stressed the importance of partnership between the federal and state enforcement mechanisms.
