DeSantis calls for policy reversal at southern border — says system 'spits in the faces of those who respect our laws'

Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis called for a reversal of policies at the southwest land border that has seen record surges of illegal immigrants, while recent reports showed thousands of migrants had been apprehended from the middle east.

In the wake of Palestinian attacks on Israel, DeSantis warned that America's enemies may be looking to target weaknesses at the United States' borders:

“I would also ask the president to consider reversing his policies on the southern border. We are vulnerable when you have all these military-age men coming in. Do you think that our enemies have not been looking at that weakness?" DeSantis told CNN.

"We know people from Iran have come, we know people from Russia have come, and we know China and other parts of the Middle East. That is not good for the security of this country. Israel probably has the strongest border security in the world, and yet, this happened to them," the governor added.

DeSantis' team pointed to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection data reported by Fox News' Bill Melugin. Melugin stated that thousands of “special interest aliens” from mostly Middle Eastern countries had been stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border. Melugin's data was reportedly confirmed by CBP officials.

From October 1, 2021-October 4, 2023, nearly 75,000 illegals from the Middle East have been apprehended. This included over 6,000 from Afghanistan, more than 1,600 from Pakistan, nearly 16,000 from Mauritania, over 13,000 Uzbekistan nationals, and a whopping 30,000 Turks.

On his official platform, DeSantis has called President Biden's administration the "critical link" in allowing human smuggling across the border.

"Our system spits in the faces of those who respect our laws by allowing illegal aliens to break those laws with functional impunity," DeSantis wrote.

"The Biden Administration is the critical link in an illegal transnational human smuggling syndicate. Through their soft policies and softer public statements, they have made clear to potential migrants that the door to the United States is open, so long as you are willing to make a harrowing and dangerous journey in the hands of Mexican drug cartels," the Republican added.

DeSantis also vowed to shut down "illegal entries" and build the border wall "once and for all."

"There are more than 600 miles of the US-Mexico border without an effective barrier to illegal crossings: I will use every ounce of my executive power and political capital to get the wall built," he added.

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