Ron DeSantis lays out plan to 'engage' Mexican cartel 'terrorist organizations' as Casey dings HaleyPrior to a Mamas for DeSantis event in Iowa, Florida first family Ron and Casey DeSantis joined Fox News for a joint interview, with the governor doubling down on his plans to institute a militaristic response plan to blunt cartel smuggling, and the first lady responding to Nikki Haley's debate spat with her husband.
"I am going to declare [the border] a national emergency," DeSantis told "The Story" on Friday.
"I'm not going to send troops to Ukraine, but I am going to send them to our southern border when these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across… That's going to be the last thing they do," he said, reiterating how those who violently disobey the law will end up "stone-cold dead."
DeSantis expressed outrage at the description of a video taken by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin of a human smuggler mugging for the camera as he ushered purported illegal immigrants through what appeared to be a mechanically sawed gap in the Trump-constructed border wall.
The man, clad in black and wearing a mask, gave a shrug that anchor Martha MacCallum described as essentially a nonverbal "see-ya."
DeSantis said if elected, he will declare drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations and that if federal assets positively identify someone who is working with a cartel, they would be able to "engage" with the individual.
Without directly addressing the video because he had yet to view it himself, DeSantis said there will be established criteria as to whom federal forces will be able to directly take lethal action against.
He compared that aspect of the border situation to his time serving in the military overseas, where it was difficult to determine Al-Qaeda militants from Iraqi civilians because they were dressed in plainclothes, not distinctive uniforms.
"If you can positively identify them or if they're making a hostile action or they're displaying hostile intent, then you engage," he said.................
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ron-desantis-lays-plan-engage-mexican-cartel-terrorist-organizations-casey-dings-haley