Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has raised eyebrows by publicly vowing to deport anyone who comes across the border illegally during the Biden administration if he wins the White House next year.
The Republican contender, 45, told reporters following a campaign event in Long Beach, Calif., Friday such a mass removal would be his “first priority” as chief executive.
“Everyone that has come illegally under Biden. We got to go — they’re sending back,” DeSantis said. “That’s going to be the first priority. That’s probably six or seven million people right there. It’s going to require a lot of effort. It’s going to require us to lean in.”
A DeSantis campaign official told The Post Monday that the prospective 47th president would achieve the ambitious promise by boosting the ranks of both Border Patrol and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as laid out in a section of his campaign website titled “Stop The Invasion.“
“We will hire more Border Patrol agents and more removal agents to make sure that even if illegal immigrants cross, they will swiftly be found and deported,” the website states.
“We will allow ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers to do their jobs and focus on illegal alien entries under Biden’s border crisis and those with criminal records,” it goes on.
The campaign official provided no further details on how DeSantis will deport the record-breaking number of migrants US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered during Biden’s presidency. In Fiscal Year 2022, the number of encounters topped 2.76 million, according to CBP data.
DeSantis’ estimate of “six or seven million people” likely comes from the total number of illegal immigrants encountered by CBP since 2021.
The Florida governor is not the only candidate pushing for mass deportations. Former President Donald Trump, speaking at the same time as DeSantis Friday, vowed to enact “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told The Post Monday. “Ron DeSantis has copied President Trump’s Agenda 47 policy proposals. Nobody wants a fake moron like Ron, when they can have the real thing like President Trump.”
Former South Carolina governor and Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said the so-called “catch and release” policy should be amended to “catch and deport,” while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to deport the children of illegal immigrants with their families, even if they are already US citizens.
DeSantis has criticized Trump for failing to build a wall on the southern border and vowed Monday he would successfully get Mexico to pay for it by imposing “fees on remittances sent to Mexico (and other countries) by illegal aliens.”
“Admitting that the famous promise from 2016 to have ‘Mexico pay for the wall’ was just an empty campaign slogan is bad enough,” the Florida governor tweeted in response to video of Trump telling an Iowa crowd Sunday that there was “no legal mechanism” to achieve such an outcome.
“What makes it worse is that there is actually a way to get Mexico to pay for the wall: impose fees on remittances sent to Mexico (and other countries) by illegal aliens,” DeSantis added. “As President, I will get this done. No more bluster! Results are all that matter!”