DeSantis: Would Build Wall, Use Military on Cartels

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, expected to announce his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by next month, said that if he were in a position to affect national immigration policy, he'd use the U.S. military to target Mexico's drug cartels and resume construction of the border wall.

"Yes and yes," the governor said during a Miami press conference, when asked if he'd build a wall and use the military against the cartels, The Floridian reported Tuesday.

"I've said publicly, I've always supported the wall just because it's such a big border. You can have border protection. You will never be able to have enough," DeSantis said. "Cartels will direct people where there's surveillance, so you have to have that. I think it's important."

DeSantis also offered President Joe Biden help from Florida builders, should Biden decide to "get serious" about construction of a border wall.

"What I've told people publicly is if Joe Biden wants to get serious about that, give me a call," said DeSantis, according to a video of his comments. "We had a situation where we had a hurricane come through Southwest Florida [that] knocked out a bridge going to Pine Island and severed the causeway to Sanibel in three different places. They were not state bridges, but locals came to me and said, 'Can you help us because we're stranded and we can't wait six months.'"

DeSantis added: "I got my guys together and I said, 'Listen, we're going to take this over, no bureaucracy, no red tape, no excuses.' … Instead of six months we did Pine Island in three days, and instead of six months we did Sanibel in three weeks."

DeSantis said it must be understood that the cartels are "running the show" and have "run the government" in Mexico.

"It's totally corrupt, but they are running people into our country and they are running massive amounts of fentanyl into our country," DeSantis said. "It's killing tens of thousands of Americans. It's killing people in Florida communities."