DeSantis’ push to secure the US-Mexico border, explained

The slogans have been a mainstay of conservative politics for years: “Secure the border.” “Build the wall.” And Gov. Ron DeSantis’ personal favorite: “Stop the invasion.”

But for DeSantis, immigration has become more than just a rallying cry. Since 2021, he’s been sending Florida law enforcement to the border to help Texas crack down on people entering the country illegally. Most recently, DeSantis announced he would offer about 1,000 members of the Florida National Guard — plus additional service members from the Florida State Guard — to the Lone Star State.

“You say that the federal government has the purview over illegal immigration and borders and that states can’t be involved, but the federal government’s not enforcing the law,” DeSantis said to reporters this month. “All the states are trying to do is to actually enforce the law as required.”

But state officials can only do so much to enforce American immigration laws, four experts interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times said.

For example, federal officials have the exclusive authority to determine whether someone has permission to stay in the country, wrote Juan Caballero, the director of the immigration clinic at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.

Given the thorny legal issues at the heart of this contentious topic, here are four questions about DeSantis’ immigration push, answered.

Who from Florida is being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border?

In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and then-Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called on other governors for help at the border. They invoked the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, an agreement that allows states to send law enforcement resources to different parts of the country in times of crisis. Out-of-state officials then are given the power to enforce state laws just like they would back home.

Starting that June, DeSantis shipped out more than 50 officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Florida has sent more than two dozen waves of officers to the border since, the Division of Emergency Management reported this month.

Florida is one of 14 states that have sent resources to the border, according to Texas officials.

Often, the state requesting emergency help reimburses the states that provide it. But Texas has told Florida it will not pay for outside help at the border. Florida spent $1.6 million in taxpayer money to fund the first seven weeks of its border mission in 2021.

Florida now has more than 90 law enforcement officers at the border, DeSantis’ office wrote in a February news release, adding that he plans to send more. He said that includes about 1,000 soldiers from the Florida National Guard and additional service members from the Florida State Guard.

However, the Texas Military Department has only requested a total of 300 additional personnel, according to a resource request document provided by Florida officials. They are to be deployed to Texas from Feb. 23 until June 3, and are to be equipped with their own weapons and at least 30 rounds of ammunition each, the document says.

Lodging at the mission’s base camp is expected to cost $200 per service member per night, the resource request estimated, meaning lodging for 300 service members for the duration of the mission could cost more than $6 million. Texas isn’t paying for this most recent deployment, either, the document said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment.

What can state law enforcement do to enforce immigration laws?

Courts have long held that the U.S. government — not the states — is tasked with regulating key areas of immigration policy.

“It is fundamental that foreign countries concerned about the status, safety, and security of their nationals in the United States must be able to confer and communicate on this subject with one national sovereign, not the 50 separate States,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in his 2012 U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion in the case Arizona v. United States. The decision struck down major parts of a controversial Arizona immigration law.

But as economic and safety conditions in some parts of Latin America have deteriorated and apprehensions of migrants by immigration agents at the border have spiked in recent years, federal resources have become badly strained.

There’s not enough space in U.S. facilities to detain and house every person suspected of entering illegally, noted Denise Gilman, the co-director of the University of Texas at Austin Law School’s immigration clinic. She added that those facilities are also expensive to manage and dangerous for migrants.

Immigration courts have a backlog of millions of cases, meaning individual cases can take months to resolve.

With the federal government struggling to manage its legal responsibilities, millions of people crossing the border every year, and only limited ways for state and federal officials to partner on immigration policy, some states have begun to take matters into their own hands.

In 2021, Abbott announced that migrants entering Texas could be arrested for trespassing — a state crime. The state has also transported more than 100,000 of these people to major Democratic-leaning cities across the country.

Abbott also signed a 2023 bill into law that would grant the state the authority to prosecute people for illegally entering the U.S. The law would also give state judges the authority to order a migrant to be removed from the country. The federal government has sued over the law, arguing it infringes on its right to enforce immigration law.

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a professor at the Ohio State University College of Law, said through its actions, Texas is mounting a challenge to the constitutional balance of power between the states and the federal government over immigration enforcement.

By sending Florida officials to Texas, DeSantis is bolstering that challenge, Hernández said.

What is Florida doing at the border?

DeSantis’ philosophy is one of deterrence. During his unsuccessful run for president, which ended earlier this year, he wrote on his campaign website: “When illegal aliens think they will get caught, they do not come.”

He’s sent Florida law enforcement to monitor the border for what appear to be illegal entries. National Guard members stationed near the border are helping Texas observe and patrol.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management reported earlier this month that the Florida Highway Patrol has come across about 149,000 people entering the country illegally in the course of more than 6,000 encounters near the southern border. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers have “made contact with” nearly 70,000 migrants believed to be entering the country illegally. Some — it’s unclear how many — of those migrants were turned over to federal officials.

What has the state’s effect on the border been so far?

Florida’s work has led to about 2,700 arrests, the Division of Emergency Management said. (In December alone, the federal government reported more than 301,000 encounters at the border between federal agents and migrants.)

Florida is also supporting Texas in a notable clash with the federal government. For months, Texas officials have been building physical impediments at the border. This has included laying down miles of razor wire.

Federal officials have said the razor wire impedes the government’s ability to access the border. Agents began cutting some of that wire, and Texas last year sued the government for destroying state property. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that federal agents can continue to cut the wire while the case moves through the courts.

DeSantis has pledged to keep helping Texas build barriers. Part of the Florida National Guard’s mission in Texas is “obstacle improvement,” his office has said.

“Texas has the right to erect barriers,” DeSantis said. “We are going to assist them in doing that.”