Ron DeSantis: We're putting our assets into place to protect Florida

just recently, within the last couple of weeks, and this will be made public later today, our Florida Fish and Wildlife Officers interdicted a vessel that had 25 illegal immigrants, potentially illegal immigrants from Haiti in their boat, in their vessel. They had firearms, they had drugs, they had night vision gear, and were boating very recklessly, which would potentially endanger other folks. So that vessel was interdicted near the Sebastian Inlet, and those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation. Now, this comes only days after the governor announced that he would be sending soldiers, aircraft, and boats to protect Florida from Haitian illegal immigrants. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joins us now with more. First of all, before we get to this specific case and the drugs and the guns and even night vision equipment, which should scare everybody, let me first take note of the fact, you're not even counting on Joe Biden to help you. You just acted, you know, with the situation rapidly deteriorating in Haiti, knowing that the likely outcome of that would be an influx into this country, you didn't go to Joe Biden because you knew that he would not be willing to uphold the laws of our country. You watched what's been happening in Texas and Arizona and California, and you said, no, it's not gonna happen here. What does that say about Joe Biden? Well, look, Sean, you know, we take matters, we step up and do what we need to do in Florida. I don't expect necessarily to get the help that I think we're entitled to. And what we found over the last several years is the Coast Guard, they do a good job. They're just way under resources. Biden will not provide the number of vessels that they need to interdict all the ships that come. So I did, I've been supplementing their efforts for years now. I did an executive order in January of 2023. So about 15 months ago, where we declared it a state of emergency and we surged a lot of vessels. So since January of 2023, our state assets have stopped 660 vessels, not all from Haiti, but from other islands in the Caribbean. And we've interdicted 13,580 illegal aliens. So that's just leading to this point. Then our executive order that we did this week is supplementing those efforts. So we have the strongest protection that our shorelines have ever had. Yes, we did interdict the one boat that had the 25 Haitians that were trying to come illegally with guns and drugs. We have not though seen yet a massive influx of boats into our region. And I think part of that is because people know if you take that journey, you're gonna get stopped and you're gonna end up back where you started. So it's not worth it. One of the things I think that may be different from this situation, from when this has happened in years past, is Haitians know the easiest way to get into our country is actually not to take a boat and to land illegally in Florida anymore. It's to fly to Mexico and to just walk across the border. There've been tens of thousands of Haitians who have done that illegally. So I think the dynamics are unique, but the bottom line for us is, we wanna be prepared. I was asked today at our press conference, why are you doing this when there has not actually yet been a massive influx? And I say, what are you supposed to do? Wait for it to happen? So we're putting our assets in place to be able to defend the state. Well, if you had waited, then the drugs and the guns and the guys with night vision, the 25 that you apprehended, they would have made it to your shores. That would have been acting too late. This is a predictable outcome that we're gonna expect out of Haiti as politically things have deteriorated very badly there. One, I hate to give you, I'm sure you probably already know this bad news. You can pretty much be assured that Joe Biden and his department of justice will be suing you like they've been suing Greg Abbott and any other state that tries to fill the void and enforce the laws that Joe not only won't enforce, but aids and abets in the breaking up. I think you're exactly right. So we have the vessels that we're gonna interdict, which is important. But one of the things Biden's been doing is he's been abusing this concept of parole where he's actually flying in illegal aliens and dumping them in different parts of the United States. So for example, there was the news today of an illegal immigrant from Haiti who was now arrested or accused of sexually assaulting a 15 year old with disabilities in Massachusetts. And that was somebody that Biden flew into this country, didn't even cross illegally, Biden flew him over the border. So that is a unique circumstance. I don't think we've had any president that has flown in this many illegal aliens into our country. So there's a lot of facets to this, but we are doing what we have every right to do, and that's defend the people of Florida. Governor, if you did that, if I did that, I can pretty much assure you that we would be arrested, fingerprinted, handcuffed, and we'd be sitting in a jail cell somewhere. That's called human trafficking. It's amazing, but it's also sad. But more importantly, it is extraordinarily dangerous for our country. Especially, look at the countries we know people are coming from, Iran and Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, China, Russia, not a good situation. But as the gangs now take over Haiti and that situation worsens, I would assume this is gonna get far worse. And I have to assume that you're on top of this and ready for perhaps even a much larger influx, which would mean a lot more interdiction efforts on the part of your staff, the people that you have out there on the waterways. Yes, and then another facet to it, Sean, is we have Florida citizens who are in Haiti and trying to get out. So I've authorized rescue flights like we did in Israel after the October 7th, because we've got a lot of folks who are part of Christian missionary groups and they do things to try to actually help a very troubled country. And so they really are doing good work. They need to get out. So we're working on that. We don't wanna say anything too publicly about what exactly we're doing until it happens, because it's a very dicey situation. But we do feel an obligation to go in and help Florida citizens who were caught in the crossfire of a very difficult situation. But I think you're right. I think you're gonna see it get worse. And what I would say is the US's role in other countries should be to offer support to Haiti to stabilize it there, not to have a million people end up showing up in the United States or neighboring countries. I don't think that's an answer. Hey, Sean Hannity here. Hey, click here to subscribe to Fox News YouTube page and catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis. You will not get it anywhere else.