Up to 1,000 Florida National Guard troops will be sent to the Texas border to stop the influx of immigrants, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday morning.
Soldiers will be deployed “based on the needs of Texas,” according to a press release on the Florida governor’s website.
The Florida State Guard will also be sent to Texas to support Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to turn away immigrants at the border — the first time the group has been deployed outside the state, the release said.
The deployment is in addition to officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement already at the border, the office said.
The governor, 45, made the announcement standing in front of members of the Florida National Guard and an orange sign that read “Stop the Invasion” in bold, black letters.
“States have the right to defend their sovereignty and we are pleased to extend our support to Texas as the Lone Star State works to stop cross-border aggression,” DeSantis added.
Governor Ron DeSantis made the announcement Thursday morning. GovRonDeSantis/Facebook
“Our reinforcements will help Texas add additional barriers, including razor wire along the border. We don’t have a country if we don’t have borders,” he said.
The former Republican presidential candidate also slammed the Biden administration’s perceived inaction at the border following US Customs and Border Protection’s record of 2.5 million encounters with illegal immigrants in 2023.
“[President] Biden has the power to close this border today. If he wanted to, he had no desire to finish the job. He doesn’t have the ability to see the problem and to get the job done,” DeSantis said, according to Fox News Digital.
DeSantis’ announcement also comes just two days before a major Take Our Border Back rally is set to take place in Texas.
Florida is “pleased to increase our support to Texas as the Lone Star State works to stop cross-border aggression,” DeSantis said in his announcement. James Keivom
Robert Agee, who organized the Texas convoy to the rally, told The Post Wednesday that “there won’t be 700,000 vehicles” participating in the event as some supporters have claimed.
According to Agee, a Texas resident, about 100 vehicles are on their way from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Dripping Springs, Texas, outside Austin, where they are expected to arrive tonight.
More people are expected to join the convoy from then on as it continues to its final destination in Quemado, about 20 miles from Eagle Pass, where one of the three rallies will be held.
A pre-rally will be held in Dripping Springs on Thursday.
President Biden “doesn’t have the capacity to see the problem and to get the job done,” DeSantis added. James Keivom A group of immigrants is pulled out of the Rio Grande river. James Keivom
Speakers will include sheriffs, political candidates, and TV reporters Laura Logan and Ann Vandersteel, Agee said.
The main gathering will take place at the Cornerstone Children’s Farm in Quemado, located directly across from the Rio Grande.
“They deliberately put out wrong information. No one involved in this convoy is a racist or conspiracy theorist,” Agee told The Post of critics of the Take Our Border Back movement.
“If you watch any interview any of us do or see any material we put out, you’ll realize that these are just freedom-loving Americans. Men and women of faith in spiritual warfare will gather together and exercise our First Amendment right to do so and we will pray … So that’s slander from them and they’re really discrediting what we’re doing,” he scoffed.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
