Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed immigration policy during an exchange with a reporter, outlining the state’s approach and criticizing proposals he said would allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country unless they commit serious crimes.
The exchange began when a reporter asked, “When it comes to immigration, one size doesn’t fit all. Where do you stand on that?”
DeSantis responded by pointing to Florida’s policies and broader concerns about federal immigration enforcement.
He said, “I stand with following Florida’s policies, which has said you can’t have a situation where Biden can bring in 10 million people and then we’re not allowed to remove them back to their home country.”
He criticized the idea that illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain unless they commit violent offenses, stating, “This idea that unless you’re an ax murderer, you should be able to stay that is not consistent with our laws, and it’s also not good policy.”
He added, “You know, we have different people that are victimized by illegal aliens every day in this country.”
DeSantis continued, “Not all of them have criminal records at the time.”
He said, “In fact, probably most of them don’t.”
He then described what he sees as flaws in that approach, stating, “But under some view, it’s like, okay, yeah, you come illegally, but and then you stay until you commit a really violent crime.”
He added, “That just doesn’t work.”
He said, “It’s incoherent.”
He continued, “It’s not and it’s not what the president ran on.”
He also addressed the idea of urging changes to federal policy, stating, “And so to send a letter to him asking him to go back on his campaign policies, I would not advise that to be done.”
DeSantis outlined Florida’s efforts to coordinate with federal authorities, stating, “I think the way that that we’ve done it in Florida is a whole host of things, but working with the federal government to help bring more removals to bear.”
He added, “When they had limited resource, they have more resources now because they got an influx of money.”
He said additional enforcement activity is expected, stating, “And so and you’ll be seeing, you’ll be seeing some of that, I think, in play in Florida as as well as up across the country.”
He added, “We’ve got to do that.”
DeSantis also pointed to deterrence measures implemented in Florida, stating, “But then what we’ve also done in Florida, we’ve done things to deter people from coming here illegally.”
He said, “Florida was like, has been a top destination for decades for people coming.”
He then listed specific measures, stating, “Well, now what have we done?”
He added, “We’ve done things like say, you know, no ID cards, no driver’s license for illegal.”
He concluded, “No, you know, the employment verification.”
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