Florida Democrats say DeSantis vowing deadly force against cartels ‘frightening,’ ‘murder’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida Democrats accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of ordering “murder” at the southern border in his response to fighting drug cartels.

They called his policy stance that would target Mexican drug cartels “frightening.”

“I’m not gonna send troops to Ukraine, but I’m gonna send them to our southern border,” DeSantis said.

“We’re gonna leave [cartels] stone cold dead,” he added.

DeSantis’ stern warning comes as U.S. deaths related to fentanyl exceeded two thirds of total drug overdoses in 2022. 107,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2022 alone.

The governor recently outlined his plan to secure the border.

In his plan, DeSantis called on the Mexican government to assist in cracking down of drug cartels. He pushed the Mexican government to not “drag [their feet]” or he will “reserve the right” to order military personnel across the border and across water bodies to stop cartel supplies from entering Mexico.

DeSantis would also planned to designate cartels as “Transnational Criminal Organizations.”

“If the Mexican government won’t stop cartel drug manufacturing, DeSantis will surge resources to the Navy and the Coast Guard and block precursor chemicals from entering Mexican ports,” his campaign said.

Stateside, DeSantis proposed using the military to help border patrol in guarding the region until physical barriers are finished.

DeSantis’ border and immigration policy included ending catch and release while allowing ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations to “do their jobs” regarding illegal aliens.

His stances also emphasized building a wall and working with state jurisdictions to uphold immigration law; all while shielding states from being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcing the law.

“What I’ve seen at the border is just humiliating as a country – that we can’t even enforce the territorial integrity of this nation,” DeSantis said at campaign event in Texas.