Liberals and immigrant advocates criticize DeSantis’s ‘frightening’ border approach.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Bold Strategy to Secure the Border
Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) strategy to bolster border security and change how the United States enforces immigration policies was met with outrage from liberals but embraced by many conservatives.
DeSantis on Monday announced while visiting the Texas border town of Eagle Pass that he would go further on border security than former President Donald Trump.
Ending Birthright Citizenship
DeSantis said he would “end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.” It would mean that immigrants who crossed the border illegally or overstayed a visa and had a child while in the U.S. would not automatically have their child deemed a U.S. citizen simply because the baby was born in the country.
“Terrifying” is how the plan was described by Juan Escalante, who was brought to the country illegally as a child and went on to be covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which granted him legal authorization to work and avoid deportation.
“BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP is part of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which, and I cant believe I have to say this to you all, touches immigration/civil/equal protection clause So while this is a nice (+ terrifying) one-line for Republicans, its implications are much broader,” Escalante, a digital strategist, wrote in a tweet.
American Immigration Council Policy Director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick balked at the proposal to operate across the border in order to “secure our territory” from Mexican cartel activities.
“Don’t think I’m aware of another major candidate for president in the last century promising a naval blockade/war on Mexico if they don’t do what he says,” Riechlin-Melnick wrote in a series of tweets.
Reichlin-Melnick also went after DeSantis’s comparing defending one’s home during a break-in to how federal law enforcement should defend the border.
“If the cartels are cutting through the border wall trying to run product into this country, they’re going to end up stone-cold dead as a result of that bad decision,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday.
“Would you let somebody just break into your house and do you harm? No. And I can tell you in Texas, they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t do that,” DeSantis continued after being asked if he would permit “shooting” a trespasser in certain circumstances. “Of course, you use deadly force. I mean, they do that in Texas. Why is our country any different?”
Reichlin-Melnick argued that “legally, historically, and practically, there’s a good reason why we don’t treat a 3,000-mile land border the same as a small house, and why we don’t treat migration for a better life the same thing as home burglary.”
Americans for Prosperity senior analyst Sam Peak pointed out that DeSantis’s idea to bar government funding from being spent on non-citizen travel would prevent states from transporting immigrants to sanctuary cities, as he and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and former Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) have done.
“This would prevent states from bussing migrants to places like Martha’s Vineyard,” Peak wrote in a tweet.
One of the most extreme reactions came from Occupy Democrats, a progressive advocacy group.
“MAGA candidate Ron DeSantis unveils his most horrifying policy to date and says that if he becomes president he will change the ‘rules of engagement’ to authorize ‘deadly force’ against undocumented immigrants cutting through the border wall,” Occupy Democrats wrote in a statement. “The shockingly bloodthirsty and fascist proposal is a new low for a Republican Party that increasingly views migrants as subhuman.
“DeSantis ominously stated that if ‘if you drop a couple of these cartel operatives, they’ll stop coming.’ Of course, authorizing Border Patrol to start shooting migrants would not just hurt cartel smugglers. Innocent men, women, and children would end up being massacred by the U.S. Government,” Occupy Democrats continued. “Republicans like DeSantis are totally okay with that kind of murder so long as it allows them to ‘look tough’ on the border.”
DeSantis is polling nationally as the second-most popular Republican candidate, behind former President Donald Trump. DeSantis launched his campaign in May.
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