Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis blasted US President Biden's immigration policies on Sunday, claiming that he "dismantled" some of Trump's policies and that the result is "a huge catastrophe at the southern border" that would have "reverberations all across our country."
In an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures," the governor said that the "catastrophe" began with Biden "dismantling President Trump's policies to stop the flow of illegal migrants across the southern border."
"What Donald Trump did worked, it was working," DeSantis emphasized. "I think from really top to bottom… Biden has failed on dealing with illegal immigration and rule of law."
DeSantis also spoke about a lawsuit brought last month by Florida's attorney general to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidance that narrows the list of illegal immigrants targeted for detention and deportation.
"When you talk about the issues of releasing convicted criminal aliens into American communities, there’s, unfortunately, going to be additional victims and that is just totally unacceptable," the Florida governor said.
The guideline, according to the outlet, citing administration sources, does not specifically prohibit anybody from being detained or deported. Instead, it focuses attention on specific objectives. Field officers who want to apprehend someone who isn't in one of those three groups will need to get permission from their superiors. It is anticipated that the number of arrests and deportations will decrease significantly.
"Normally when we have a criminal alien convicted of a felony, they obviously serve their sentence in Florida state prison and prior to Joe Biden’s administration, ICE would take control of them when they finish their sentence and they’d remove the criminal alien and send them back to their home country," the governor noted. "That should be like clockwork. That is the biggest no-brainer there is."
DeSantis made the remarks when discussing why he and Florida's attorney general oppose the Biden administration's "reckless policy" on ICE.
DeSantis chastised the current administration for "no longer honoring ICE detainers," claiming that "you can't just totally default on your responsibility to enforce the law under the Constitution."
"Instead, under Biden’s administration, they’re no longer honoring these ICE detainers, they’re withdrawing the detainers so you have a criminal alien that is convicted, maybe they served five years in state prison for a serious felony, ICE is effectively releasing them back into our communities," he continued, stressing that "some of those people will reoffend."
The lawsuit filed by the state's AG claims that ICE has refused to take custody of inmates who have been released from state custody, including those who have done time for robbery and drug trafficking.
DeSantis acknowledged that it is "hard to know" when the case will be decided, but expressed hope that "we would get an injunction in joining this new policy, basically saying that they have to accept and remove the criminal aliens."
"I’m sure the government will appeal that, but we can at least get that started," he admitted. "I think you could save potentially some pretty serious criminal offenses in the future as long as they’re not released in society in the meantime."
Arizona and Montana have filed a similar complaint to prevent ICE from issuing temporary guidelines.