DeSantis vows to use deadly force at border to stop cartel operatives: ‘Stone-cold dead’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged on the campaign trail for president on Monday that his administration will change the rules of engagement at the border to physically stop drug smugglers with deadly force.

“We’re going to create adequate rules of engagement, if somebody were breaking into your house to do something bad you would respond with force,” DeSantis said while visiting the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday. “Yet why don’t we do that at the southern border?”

“So 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 added, “If you drop a couple of these cartel operatives, they’ll stop coming.”

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The Florida Republican was in Texas unveiling his border security agenda that he pledged will “stop the invasion” at the southern border.

“On Jan. 20, 2025, we will be on a mission to stop the invasion at our southern border to fight the drug cartels that are poisoning our citizenry, to build the border wall, and to reestablish the sovereignty of this nation,” DeSantis said. “We are done with promises. We are done with slogans. Now is the time for action. No excuses. We will get the job done.”

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The governor stressed that it’s “humiliating as a country to not have control over our own territory.”

And he slammed President Biden, charging that “this border because of the neglect of the Biden administration, because of their intentional failures, this border is controlled by the Mexican drug cartels. That is a disgrace. That is horrific.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report