José Diaz Briseño / Reform Agency
Friday, May 12, 2023 | 18:23
Miami.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has no right to criticize the laws of the State of Florida since Mexico is controlled by drug cartels and allows millions of undocumented immigrants to reach the United States, said Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Four days after the Mexican president criticized DeSantis for promoting a tough law against undocumented migration, DeSantis used an event on cryptocurrencies to respond to López Obrador, assuring that he has a country in a disaster situation on his hands.
“We have this Mexican president who is criticizing Florida for enacting laws against illegal immigration. It seems to me that he has a disaster on his hands,” DeSantis said in Fort Myers.
“(He) has totally out of control (drug) cartels that run his Country. And all the millions of people that come to our country, they are all passing through his country. What kind of Country allows millions of people to pass through ( your nation) like this?” DeSantis added about the situation in Mexico.
Just Wednesday, DeSantis signed into law a law requiring Florida businesses to use the E-Verify employment verification program to screen undocumented employees as well as increasing public funding to move undocumented workers to Democratic Party-run locations.
“Now I find out that the governor of Florida – imagine Florida, full of immigrants – is now taking repressive, inhumane measures against immigrants in Florida, because he wants to be a candidate. What, can’t he make another proposal to convince the people?” López Obrador said.
“What, do you have to use the pain of the people, the pain of the migrant, the need of the people to get a political split? That is immoral, that is politicking,” López Obrador added in his daily conference.
Although he has not officially declared his intentions, DeSantis is considered former President Donald Trump’s main competitor in the fight for the Republican Party’s 2024 White House nomination; According to CBS, Trump today leads the preferences 58 points compared to 22 points for DeSantis.
At 44, DeSantis is one of the leading stars of the American conservative movement, winning re-election by wide margins in the 2022 midterm elections and pushing legally controversial regulations on gender, school and firearms issues.
