On Monday, while Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis unveiled his 2024 presidential campaign border policy in Eagle Pass, Texas, he vowed to “turn the screws on sanctuary jurisdictions” and “kneecap the cartels.”
“We’re gonna turn the screws on sanctuary jurisdictions,” said DeSantis at a campaign event, which aired live on some cable and streaming platforms. “They get a lot of money. All these localities and states get a lot of money from the feds. They get grants. They get all that.”
“You know, we’ll make sure to turn the screws so that it pays to follow the law, and it doesn’t pay to violate the law.”
According to DeSantis, it isn’t just about money with the Democrat-run cities and states that are “virtue signaling” along with open immigration policies, which violate U.S. law and are in defiance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The governor also emphasizes it is also about public safety.
“What will happen is you’ll have somebody who’s in the country illegally, they’ll commit a serious crime, they’ll serve a prison sentence; when they’re done with their prison sentence, a state or a locality, that sanctuary will not notify ICE that they’re getting out of prison, because if they do, ICE can take them and send them back,” lamented DeSantis.
“Instead, they release them back into the community. How is that something that’s acceptable? It’s not.”
DeSantis: President Biden has taken “virtue signaling” to new depths
DeSantis vowed that President Joe Biden had taken the “virtue signaling” started by anti-Trump forces during the Trump years to all new depths. Additionally, open borders must remain closed, according to the governor.
“Joe Biden’s dereliction of duty has made our southern border a disaster zone,” said DeSantis. “The Biden administration is the critical link in an illegal transnational human smuggling syndicate.”
“For decades, leaders from both parties have produced empty promises on border security, and now it is time to act to stop the invasion once and for all,” said DeSantis. “As president, I will declare a national emergency on day one and will not rest until we build the wall, shut down illegal entry, and win the war against the drug cartels. No excuses. We will get it done.”
A critical piece of DeSantis’ plan is declaring the Mexico human trafficking and drug cartels Transnational Criminal Organizations in a federal order-led effort to “kneecap the cartels.”
“We’re going to be leaning in against these drug cartels,” said DeSantis. “I think that they are killing a lot of Americans. They are effectively in control of this border, to begin with, and part of the reason it’s gotten this way is they don’t get any pushback.”
“They’re able just to do this with impunity, and so we will designate them either Transnational Criminal organization or foreign terrorist organization. Chip and I are talking about that. The bottom line is we’re going to give them a designation so that we can unleash more federal power to be able to kneecap the cartels,” said DeSantis.
Chip refers to DeSantis’ earlier endorser GOP Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who once helped run the presidential campaign for Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and is currently active among the House conservatives pushing back against President Biden’s open border policies.
“Washington’s status quo approach to border security is one of the biggest failures of our generation,” said Roy, speaking before DeSantis. “This crisis has decimated ranchers, killed Americans with dangerous narcotics, placed migrants in horrific situations from sex trafficking to death, and placed American national security at risk to China and cartels.”
Roy continued, “Texans and our courageous DPS Troopers deserve credit for standing in the breach created by Joe Biden. We need a president in the White House who is not afraid to use the full weight of his office to build the wall, stop the flow, and force Congress to send a bill to sign to fix the laws once and for all.”
“Ron DeSantis not only has a strong plan to secure the border — in line with our Texas plan — he has the courage to finally deliver results,” said Roy.
