DeSantis Details Hard-Right Immigration Proposals

Hi, I’m David Goodman. I’m the Houston bureau chief for The New York Times. And I’m out here in Eagle Pass, Texas, on the border. And we’re here to see Ron DeSantis talk to voters and also unveil some of his policy proposals for the border, if he were elected president. “You know, I’m a military member. I’ve got three kids in the military also, and we live close to the border. So I’m trying to see how this influx of, you know, illegal entry can be stopped.” “When you don’t have control of your own border, that’s an American problem. This impacts communities all throughout this country.” After the event meeting voters, Ron DeSantis went to a ranch along the border, and I asked him to clarify on one point that seemed particularly striking in his earlier remarks, which was that he would essentially update the rules of engagement to allow the use of force in certain instances with crossings. And I asked him if he meant that that would actually involve shooting at migrants. “So we will use all levers at our disposal. If somebody is breaking through the border wall, which they are doing in other parts, demonstrating hostile intent or hostile action, you have to be able to meet that with the appropriate use of force. Of course you use deadly force. Would you let somebody just break into your house and do you harm? No, and I can tell you, in Texas they wouldn’t do that.” One of the other things that came up today was just the connection between the immigration issue and the fentanyl crisis across the country. And Ron DeSantis really tried to make that connection explicit. “Every single state in this country has seen an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. These are mothers that are losing kids as a result of what’s being brought across the border.” And then he mentioned it several times that this crisis of drug overdoses across the country is directly connected to what he would say are the open border policies of the Biden administration. So, a very sort of hard-line and aggressive approach to immigration that Ron DeSantis was laying out.