At a press briefing about Operation Tidal Wave, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) defended the deportation of illegal immigrants.
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00:00...stay a priority to get them back home with their families.
00:02A question for the governor, just about the intersection of state law.
00:05We saw that the federal court in Miami on Friday, a judge had reiterated that there was a say
00:10that there was 50 arrests that apparently made, one was for the U.S. citizen up in Tallahassee
00:16on the violation of a federal order.
00:19We hear you kind of take a jab after the trial, this is official, but...
00:23It's not taking a jab.
00:25It's just, you know, you can't have effective immigration enforcement if you have elaborate
00:32procedures that you have to go through.
00:34It is not punishment to be removed from this country.
00:38If you're going to be punished, then you get the full panoply of due process.
00:42But these are not punishments that are being rendered.
00:45It is just the consequence of being here illegally.
00:48Now, in terms of this judge, we are not at all surprised.
00:52We knew that they would go in and do that.
00:55The legislature structured that state law in a way that was different from Texas and
01:01some of the others that have run into problems.
01:03So we actually feel confident that we'll ultimately be vindicated on that.
01:07It should be a crime to enter the state of Florida illegally.
01:11We have police power to be able to do that.
01:13That does not undercut or interfere with federal efforts.
01:16In fact, if anything, that buttresses federal efforts.
01:19So on detention, if we get the sign-off from DHS, we can expand detention space very quickly in Florida.
01:37I mean, just think about it.
01:38I mean, you guys who are Florida-based, you know when we have hurricanes, we end up setting up locations for tens of thousands of linemen, right?
01:45We do that very, very quickly.
01:47So we have the capacity to set it up quickly.
01:50But we're not going to do that without the approval of the Department of Homeland Security.
01:54And I know they're working on exactly what they want to do after tidal wave.
01:58This is what they had focused on.
01:59So Kevin Guthrie, Division of Emergency Management, they can absolutely do that.
02:04And that could be potentially a short-term support for the lack of space that the feds may have.
02:11So we stand ready, willing, and able to help in that space.
02:14We stand ready, willing, and able to help in the immigration judge space.
02:17Because remember, I think not everyone may know because the way it's presented.
02:21These are not Article III judges.
02:23They are executive branch employees, basically.
02:26We can absolutely deputize judge advocates from our National Guard units to serve as immigration judges.
02:33We can do others to do that.
02:35So we'll help on that piece as well.
02:37And we can even help on the transport piece, whether it's transporting.
02:40I know that they were talking about Gitmo.
02:42I don't know that they've used that.
02:43But we can help with that as well.
02:45So we can really be a force multiplier in Florida.
02:48And a lot of it is just because, well, one, we're committed to the mission.
02:51We think it's important.
02:52We know that there's tens of thousands of illegal aliens under deportation orders in this state alone.
02:57I've heard as much as 80,000 may be in the state of Florida who've already been ordered to be deported.
03:03But certainly it's tens of thousands.
03:05But we also have great muscle memory on how to handle quick emergency responses.
03:10So these things can happen very quickly.
03:13Our guys are very nimble.
03:14I mean, you know, you've seen hurricane responses.
03:16But you've also seen us rescue people from Israel.
03:19You've seen us evacuate and rescue people from Haiti.
03:22This is just what we do.
03:24And we stand ready and willing and able to help.