Gov. Ron DeSantis made the announcement last week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey sent out a joint call for additional law enforcement manpower and other resources to help at the overrun and lawless U.S.-Mexico border.
In the June 10 Abbot-Ducey letter, which can be read here, the governors ask for “all available law-enforcement resources to the border in defense of our sovereign and territorial integrity.”
“I'm proud to announce today that the state of Florida is answering the call,” DeSantis said. “Florida has your back."
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, points out that U.S. governors routinely help other states during a crisis.
“In this case,” he tells One News Now, “it happens to be a crisis at the border that is affecting Texas and Arizona, and those states are willing to accept the assistance that he's offering.”
In the Abbot-Ducey letter, the governors cite a 1996 nationwide emergency assistance compact that provides for “mutual assistance” between the states. The most important work for law enforcement, the letter further states, is arresting migrants who illegally cross the border into state territory.
Mehlman says helping Texas and Arizona benefits other states, too, since many illegal aliens often travel through the Southwest and scatter across the interior of the country, including Florida.
A 2018 estimate by the Migration Policy Institute estimated 732,000 illegal aliens were living in Florida, a majority of them from Mexico, at the time.
