Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has announced that his state would be taking the lead on President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations, declaring that he would use his power to “suspend” any official who is caught “neglecting their duties” in protecting the American people from criminal illegal aliens.
DeSantis made the announcement during a press conference on Monday, as well as in a post on X.
“Today, I called for a special session of the Florida legislature the week of January 27 to prepare Florida to lead on the Trump Administration’s deportation program,” the Florida governor wrote in the post, adding that his administration will “allocate resources and ensure state and local officials in Florida are supporting these efforts.”
“We have no time to waste. Florida must lead,” DeSantis’ post continued. “While we are in special session, we should also address key issues facing our state: ballot initiative integrity, disaster relief, and condominium regulations.”
Today, I called for a special session of the Florida legislature the week of January 27 to prepare Florida to lead on the Trump Administration’s deportation program. We will allocate resources and ensure state and local officials in Florida are supporting these efforts.
We have… pic.twitter.com/glzTXeNndD— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 13, 2025
In the press conference at Florida’s state Capitol, DeSantis highlighted the fact that Florida needs to institute “measures to hold people accountable who are violating our anti-sanctuary policies, and then Florida needs to make sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally.”
“So therefore I’m going to call the legislature into special session starting the week of January 27 we have the next president taking office January 20,” he continued, noting that Trump will likely be issuing executive orders on the issues of border security and deportations “immediately after the swearing in and the inaugural address.”
“We’re going to have some time to process to make sure we’re doing what we need to do. but then we need to act and we need to act quickly,” DeSantis added.
He went on to point to the clear mandate that Trump received from the American people with his historic Electoral College and popular vote victory.
“The American people spoke very clearly of all the issues out there, and there were a lot of very important issues,” DeSantis said. “This issue of the border and illegal immigration was one of the top issues in the 2024 election, and has been one of the top issues that we’ve had in this country for many, many years. So it will require new legislation in Florida to ensure that the duties of both state and local officials are very clear, and that those duties require them to be assisting the federal government in this regard. Now the state, we’re going to do it, because I’m going to order that the state does it.”
He then pointed out that some of these actions will require funding, which he is calling on the legislature to approve — noting that these actions will “help with the overall public safety,” citing the example of the illegal alien looters who were arrested in the aftermath of the hurricanes that hit Florida last year.
“Yes, enforcing immigration law, in and of itself, is important. If you think back to the hurricanes we just had, they had looters in Pinellas County,” DeSantis explained. “I think it was like 45 of them that were arrested over a period of time, and I think 40 of them were in this country illegally. And I’m just thinking to myself, how the hell is this happening here on the head of a natural disaster, you got people that come here without authorization, and they go out and try to loot the place. Give me a break.”
DeSantis further explained that these criminal illegal aliens need to be sent back to their countries “immediately” — noting that it will ultimately help “the overall situation, even apart from immigration.”
Governor DeSantis Makes an Announcement from the Capitol https://t.co/kJa0bhuxUN
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 13, 2025
He also warned that he would be using his executive authority to suspend any officials who refuse to follow deportation orders.
“Now, the accountability is significant, and those duties are clear in the law, I have the authority to suspend them from their office if they are neglecting their duties. That’s a that’s an authority that I have when it’s been appropriate in the past,” DeSantis said.
“We also need to make sure that we don’t have incentives for people to come illegally. We enacted E-Verify. People said that couldn’t happen. We really did, probably the strongest legislation in the country in 2023. So I think Florida has really done a great job with one lingering exception back in 2014,” he added.
🚨 HOLY SH*T.
Governor Ron DeSantis just said he might FIRE certain public officials who do not obey Trump's deportations.
"I have the authority, with respect to certain officials, to suspend them from office if they are neglecting their duties."
Florida is going to be one of… pic.twitter.com/G2IS93dnNT
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 13, 2025
