Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is engaging in another publicity stunt along the U.S.-Mexico border. And this one is, dare I say, potentially more dangerous than his cruel stunt of flying migrants across the country.
Florida, obviously, has no border with Mexico. But DeSantis has turned right-wing rage over migrants crossing Texas’ border into his cause célèbre.
On Thursday, he said he’ll send about 1,000 members of the Florida National Guard, along with an unspecified number of Florida State Guard members, to join Texas’ defiant standoff with the Biden administration over immigration enforcement. A law professor told The Orlando Sentinel that deploying the State Guard, which answers to the governor, outside of Florida appears to violate state law. Nonetheless, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick celebrated the move.
Florida, obviously, has no border with Mexico. But DeSantis has turned right-wing rage over migrants crossing Texas’ border into his cause célèbre.
After the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could remove razor wire that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration placed along the border, Abbott vowed to add more. Online, he shared bogus claims that Texas is facing an immigrant “invasion” to justify a crackpot legal theory that Texas has a right to overrule federal immigration law and devise its own.
Abbott’s defiance has been celebrated by extremists who are eager to see the standoff spark a civil war, as well as by Republican governors offering their support, such as DeSantis. It seems Florida’s governor, fresh off of his embarrassing collapse in the Republican presidential primary, is still trying to maintain a national profile — and a reputation among the GOP’s extremists. Using Florida’s guard members to fan the flames of anti-government angst is one way to do that.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.