Florida will be sending up to 1,000 members of the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard to Texas to assist with the southern border, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday.
DeSantis said the guard members will be deployed based on Texas’ needs as the state deals with a wave of illegal immigration.
“States have every right to defend their sovereignty and we are pleased to increase our support to Texas as the Lone Star State works to stop the invasion across the border,” said DeSantis in a press release on Thursday. “Our reinforcements will help Texas to add additional barriers, including razor wire along the border. We don’t have a country if we don’t have a border.”
The guard members will join the more than 90 officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that are currently deployed to the border.
DeSantis cited illegal drugs, including fentanyl, and violent crime associated with border crossings.
“We need to stop this invasion of the southern border once and for all,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla.
While still in the GOP primary race, DeSantis reiterated his plan for dealing with drug smugglers. “If someone in the drug cartels is sneaking fentanyl across the border when I’m president, that’s gonna be the last thing they do. We’re gonna shoot them stone-cold dead.”
Fentanyl Crisis In The U.S.: The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced in late January that it had seized more than 77 million fentanyl pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder — the most the DEA has ever seized in a single year.
The DEA noted it had revamped its approach to tackle what it has described as “the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced — fentanyl.”
Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Nationwide, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 107,000 people died from a drug overdose in 2021 mainly due to fentanyl.
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