DeSantis Asserts he is More Hawkish Than Trump on Illegal Immigration

With the 2024 Iowa Caucuses less than two weeks away, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has kicked his presidential campaign into high gear, traversing the Hawkeye State trying to cram in as many meet and greet events in hopes of upsetting former President Donald Trump, or at the very least, come in a respectable second place. During a town hall interview with Gray TV in Des Moines, Iowa, Gov. DeSantis continued to try to contrast himself with President Trump on issues, particularly with the ongoing illegal immigration crisis along the southern border with Mexico.

As more than 300,000 illegal immigrants came across last month alone, DeSantis reaffirmed his position that he would “declare” the border crisis a “national emergency on day one.”

DeSantis is vowing to deport all those who have crossed over illegally.

I'm going to have the military on the border to stop the invasion cold. But one of the things we have to do is, people come illegally, we've had millions under Biden, I'm going to deport them back to their home country,” said DeSantis.  You have got to do that.”

In contrasting himself to Trump on border security, DeSantis said that under his administration, Mexico would pay for the border security wall by charging Mexican workers employed in the US “fees” on the remittances they send back home.

In addition, DeSantis swiped at Trump for not delivering on his promise to deport more illegal aliens than any of his predecessors.

“Donald Trump promised the largest deportations in history. He deported less, believe it or not, than Barack Obama even did. So I'm going to do that. Number two, we are going to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it. How do you do that? Mexico is not just going to give us money. You charge fees on the remittances that workers send overseas. That'll raise billions. We'll build the wall,” added DeSantis. “But most importantly, we're going to hold the Mexican drug cartels accountable. I'm going to categorize them as foreign terrorist organizations. That's going to give us an ability to use deadly military force against them.”

Trump did deport fewer illegal aliens than Obama, but that was because there were significantly fewer attempts by migrants to cross into the U.S. illegally during his first term as president.

Under Trump, both legal and illegal immigration drastically slowed down.

DeSantis first stated that he would use military force against Mexican drug cartels when The Floridian pressed him on the issue at an official executive office event in Miami prior to his run for president.