Drug pushers who illegally cross into the United States might end up facing strict rules of engagement and penalties if Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wins the 2024 election, he told Fox News on Wednesday.
DeSantis doubled down on his plan to apply "deadly force" in certain situations, a contrast to what he and other Republicans have described as an unfettered, open border under the auspices of President Biden and his Homeland Security Chief Alejandro Mayorkas.
The governor was asked about his definition of "hostile intent," a phrase he used during recent remarks, and he replied that "all options are on the table to defend the American people."
"People are dying by the tens of thousands because of the fentanyl that's trafficked in. And we talk a lot about the porous border, and it is very porous, and it's sad, and there are vast expanses where there's no wall, no barrier. We're going to obviously build the wall and do that."
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DeSantis praised the Abbott administration in Texas for its work trying to secure the border amid federal headwinds, telling "The Story" his own trips there have proved the tact he must take if elected president.
"The cartels will actually cut through the good part of the border wall, like a blowtorch or a saw. They have backpacks on, they run in the drugs," he said.
"So my view as commander-in-chief would be is we have to have appropriate rules of engagement to say, if you're cutting through a border wall on sovereign U.S. territory and you're trying to poison Americans, you're going to end up stone-cold dead. We are not going to put up with this."
DeSantis said Mexican cartels control the American border thanks to ineffective federal policy, and that it has taken state governments like those in Austin and his own in Tallahassee to help stand it up.
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The governor, whose state has been targeted by smugglers via water over the years, said he might also deploy maritime operations if president to stem the tide of illegal foreign-made drugs.
DeSantis was asked by anchor Martha MacCallum if there are any federal agencies he would seek to abolish, noting how conservatives have targeted the Department of Education among others as ineffective or redundant to state-based agencies tasked with the same role.
"So we would do education, we would do commerce, we'd do energy, and we would do IRS, and so if Congress will work with me on doing that, we'll be able to reduce the size and scope of government," DeSantis replied, adding that if Congress won't allow him to eliminate such agencies, he will instead use the executive offices to rebuff woke ideology and creeping "leftism" within them.
