Opinion
By LIV CAPUTO, The Floridian
02-12-24
TALLAHASSEE, FL—As Governor Ron DeSantis prepares to send thousands of National and State Guardsmen to the Texas Border, Florida Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing: the border is failing, and Florida should help secure it. In two exclusive interviews with The Floridian, top Legislators talked about border protections.
“I think the border is a serious issue, and I said it on the Floor last year: Biden sucks at the border, and Trump sucked at it, and Obama sucked at it, and no President’s been good about it because no one wants to draw a bright line rule,” Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo told The Floridian. From 2021 to 2022, illegal immigrant encounters rose nearly 33 percent.
“I used personal funds to sue the Governor and the Florida Department of Transportation for the migrant flights from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard because that was using taxpayer dollars for people that were already basically pending asylum. These were not the nefarious fentanyl mules that the preamble of all these bills in the discussion was about,” said Sen. Pizzo.
“However, if they were asking for funds to be appropriated to send law enforcement from the state of Florida to buttress and support border security, I would be for it,” Pizzo added. Gov. DeSantis is doing just that in the form of Florida’s newly resurrected and armed State Guard, planning to send 1,000 National Guard troops and an unstated number of State Guardsman to Texas’ border.
Read the full article here: Florida Has Bipartisan Support for Securing Texas Border · The Floridian (floridianpress.com)
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
