Florida.- The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, announced that he will send more than 1,100 state agents and members of the National Guard to the Texas border with Mexico, after the end of the immigration policy known as Title 42 and a few weeks after its long awaited launch as presidential candidate.
NBC News reported that DeSantis will send 800 members of the Florida National Guard; 200 agents of the Law Enforcement Department; 101 state highway troopers; 20 agents from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Department of Emergency Management; 5 fixed-wing aircraft; 12 unmanned drones; and 10 boats.
The governor’s office specified that the personnel will remain 30 days at the border with the possibility of extending the period of time.
DeSantis had been preparing an announcement related to immigration issues for weeks, amid criticism of the Biden Administration.
“The impacts of the Biden border crisis are being felt in communities across the country, and the federal government’s resignation of duty undermines our nation’s sovereignty and the rule of law,” DeSantis said in a statement.
In June 2021, the Republican sent around 100 officers, primarily from the Florida Highway Patrol, the Department of Law Enforcement and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, for a period of six weeks, to help with what he described as a catastrophe on the southern border.
The Florida staff were sent at the request of the Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Back then, Republican governors from across the country sent state resources to the southern border.
On Tuesday, Abbott said in a statement shortly after DeSantis’s announcement that he sent letters to all 50 governors requesting support in combating the border crisis.
