DeSantis announces sendoff for Florida personnel to southern border

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced the sendoff of more Florida personnel to Texas to address the southern border crisis.

“This is part of a years-long effort for us to help do what the federal government has refused to do, which is to actually defend this country’s borders,” DeSantis said.

The governor announced 76 Florida Highway Patrol officers along with 50 National Guardsmen are headed to Texas from Plant City.

Previously, the governor’s office said that nearly 1,000 soldiers, or one full battalion of National Guard members, are being offered to Texas.

“We saw the direction that this was gonna take,” DeSantis said. “We’re gonna continue to be in this fight until this problem is solved.”

Officials from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Florida Highway Patrol, and Department of Military Affairs joined the governor for his announcement Friday in Pensacola.

The Biden administration has been insistent on tearing down erected border barriers as Texas Gov. Greg Abbot uses state resources to guard the border, citing the state’s right to self defense from invasion under the U.S. Constitution.

“You’ve seen numbers that have been astronomical over these last three years,” DeSantis said. “I know that what’s been happening in Texas has been effective, you’ve seen the numbers go down.”

The governor said he doesn’t think America has seen the “full extent of the damage” from people coming through the border from “problematic countries” and said he thinks it will cause a “terrorist attack” in the U.S.

“I wish I didn’t believe that, but I don’t see how you could have this many people come in from problematic areas and not have something bad happen,” DeSantis said.

The governor said people coming into the country illegally are being treated “better” than Americans.

He said Biden’s administration has been a “big problem.”

“We’re supposed to be a great country and you can’t even maintain control of your own territory, and your own border?” DeSantis said. “It’s really been a humiliating experience for the United States to see what’s happened over these many years.”

The governor said Florida is “part of the solution” for the country.

“We’re happy to have stepped up years ago, we’re happy to continue to still be in this fight,” DeSantis said.

The governor additionally floated future legislative action to hold “accountable” groups who “facilitate” the border crisis.