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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he will convene a special session of the state Legislature aimed at helping President-elect Donald Trump implement his immigration agenda.
“I’m going to call the Legislature into special session starting the week of Jan. 27,” DeSantis said during a press conference at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. “We have the next president taking office Jan. 20, we anticipate executive orders to be issued immediately after the swearing-in and the inaugural address.”
“We’re going to have some time to process and make sure we’re doing what we need to do, but then we need to act and we need to act quickly,” the governor added.
DeSantis noted that he expects a “sea change in policies, particularly with respect to the border” shortly after Trump, 78, takes his oath of office. He added that Florida “stands ready, willing, and able” to assist the incoming president to “facilitate these policies.”
The governor, who met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., last week, said the president-elect plans to “provide a level of empowerment for state and local governments” to combat illegal immigration.
“We have a responsibility to be in this fight,” DeSantis argued.
“State and local officials in Florida must help the Trump administration enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” he continued. “In order to do that effectively we are going to need legislation to impose additional duties on local officials and provide funding for those local officials.”
“There also needs to be measures to hold people accountable for violating our anti-sanctuary policies and that Florida needs to make sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally,” the Sunshine State leader added.
DeSantis warned that he would move to suspend officials from office if they were found to be “neglecting their duties.”
The governor indicated that he expects the Legislature to allocate tens of millions of dollars in new spending to expand state immigration enforcement and detention efforts. He also said he would consider activating the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard to assist Trump enforce federal immigration laws.
DeSantis’s call for a special session to help Trump ahead of his inauguration stands in stark contrast to what some Democratic governors have done to prepare for the incoming 47th president’s term.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom convened an emergency legislative session last month to ask state lawmakers for $25 million to fund expected lawsuits the Golden State will file against Trump.
“We will work with the incoming administration and we want President Trump to succeed in serving all Americans. But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action,” Newsom said in a December statement.
“And that is exactly what this special session is about — setting this state up for success, regardless of who is in the White House,” he added.
Newsom’s administration has also drawn up plans to help illegal migrants dodge deportation once Trump takes office.
The Newsom administration proposal calls for the “creation of an Immigrant Support Network” that would connect illegal migrants to legal services providers and other groups if they are facing deportation.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation in American history once he’s sworn in.
