Ron DeSantis visited the border of the United States and Mexico this Monday to share his vision of immigration policy to reach the White House in 2024. The governor of Florida seeks to rise in the polls and reduce the distance from who is in the lead, the former president Donald Trump. In the midst of a campaign to conquer the hardest nuclei of the right, the candidate criticized the ex-president’s policy on the border as soft and promised a more aggressive strategy, which includes the “lethal force” of the local authorities, to stop the irregular immigration crossing from Mexico.
“This border is controlled by drug cartels,” DeSantis said at a press conference from Eagle Pass, Texas. Behind him was the Rio Grande, the natural boundary that separates the United States from Mexico and the last stumbling block for thousands of people who begin their journey north from dozens of Latin American countries.
The governor of Florida has promised this Monday to stop “without excuses” the migratory flow from reaching Washington after the presidential elections in November of next year. He sums up his strategy in three points: Secure the border, continue building the wall, and “stop the invasion.” The first thing he would do would be to declare a “national emergency”, establish martial law in some points of the more than 3,000 kilometers of line and put an end to the “false asylum”.
The ultra-conservative politician has joined other Republican candidates, such as Trump himself, who have promised to eliminate incentives for immigrants who have arrived illegally, such as “employment, social benefits paid by taxes” and US citizenship by birth. “I mean this idea that you can cross the border and two days later have a child who is somehow a US citizen. That was not the original purpose of the 14th Amendment. [el texto de 1868 sobre protección igualitaria]. It is wrong for people to use our country for birth tourism,” DeSantis said.
The local president arrived in Texas on Sunday night. He has promised to increase the use of force in the fight against irregular immigration. “We are going to redefine the rules for a matchup. If someone is breaking into your house to do something bad, you would respond forcefully. Why don’t we do it on the southern border? If the cartels are making holes in the wall, they will end up dead after that decision,” said the governor, who said that the Trump Administration did nothing to eradicate Mexican criminal organizations.
The governor led two events in the border community, a region that has suffered from the increase in immigrants who have arrived since the Joe Biden era began in Washington. A survey of the AP agency points out that 60% of Americans disapprove of the executive’s immigration policy. DeSantis, who is facing trouble in Florida over his anti-immigrant rhetoric, has been forced to toughen his pitch as a strategy for growth in the polls.
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This is his second visit to the Mexican border in less than a month. At the beginning of June, DeSantis traveled to Arizona, a state vital to the interests of the Republicans, to criticize the decisions adopted by the Democrats. He met with Cochise County authorities, who have expressed concern about the increase in high-speed pursuits of human smugglers.
DeSantis has used his events in Texas and Arizona to promise legal reform that would allow state police and some offices of the sheriff of border entities to deport those who arrive through the line, a task that today is in the exclusive hands of the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol.
Criticism of Trump
Reporters who have covered DeSantis’ tour of the border asked him what made him different from Trump, who became popular thanks to his heavy-handed anti-immigration policy. “I was surprised when they told me that there were more deportations in the first four years of Obama than in the Trump Administration, which I found incredible,” said the Florida governor, criticizing his main rival.
“Some of the wall was built, but it’s not even close to what is needed,” the politician continued. DeSantis admitted that he shares much of Trump’s vision of the border, but has assured that much of what the former president promised in 2016 was not done. “Where we differ is that we will be more aggressive about what he did in terms of empowering local authorities,” he added.
Donald Trump did not remain silent before his rival’s visit to Texas. “President Trump made the United States border more secure. Just ask Ron DeSantis,” said a statement sent by his campaign. Trump said he had found DeSantis’ event in Eagle Pass “very boring,” where he gathered just a hundred people.
The applicant undertakes a tour of the border line in which he promises to turn off the tap on illegal immigration “without excuses”. However, he has not explained how he will achieve much of what he advances, actions that need the Legislature and even constitutional reforms, unlikely in times of polarization on Capitol Hill. “We are not going to get a second chance. Either we win the election or we’re never going to be able to fix this,” DeSantis said as he pointed behind him to the mighty Rio Grande.
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