On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) announced that the state of Florida will be sending up to 1,000 of its National Guard troops to Texas to assist state authorities in securing the border.
According to the New York Post, a press release from the governor’s office explained that the troops will be deployed “based on Texas’ needs,” and will include such duties as helping to repel illegal aliens trying to come across the southern border. It is the first time ever that the Florida National Guard has been deployed to somewhere outside of the state.
Florida has already sent state law enforcement officers to Texas besides the National Guard, including officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The governor and former presidential candidate made the announcement at a press conference where he was flanked by National Guard members, standing in front of a podium bearing a sign which read “Stop the Invasion.”
“States have every right to defend their sovereignty and we are pleased to increase our support to Texas as the Lone Star State works to stop the invasion across the border,” said DeSantis. “Our reinforcements will help Texas to add additional barriers, including razor wire along the border. We don’t have a country if we don’t have a border.”
DeSantis’ contributions come as the state of Texas takes extreme measures to secure the southern border, in response to the Biden Administration’s refusal to enforce basic immigration laws and to let all illegals come into the country due to Biden’s open-borders approach.
The state of Texas has resorted to setting up its own barriers along the border, ranging from giant buoys in the Rio Grande River to block water crossings, to metal shipping containers and barbed wire blocking the border on land. After Biden’s DHS sued to stop Texas from implementing any further physical barriers, the Supreme Court sided with the federal government; however, Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) announced that the state would continue enforcing the border anyway in defiance of the Court, citing the authority granted to him by declaring the border crisis to be a foreign invasion, thus invoking emergency powers.