This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed that his state partnered with federal immigration authorities to carry out an enforcement effort titled “Operation Tidal Wave.”
The operation led to the arrests of over 1,100 suspected illegal aliens living in the state of Florida. This occurred in just one week.
“This is the largest operation of its kind in the nation, and we did it here in Florida because I insisted state and local law enforcement agencies provide cooperation and support for immigration enforcement efforts,” DeSantis touted on X.
Today, I joined our federal partners to highlight a first-of-its-kind immigration enforcement effort called "Operation Tidal Wave."
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 1, 2025
This is the largest operation of its kind in the nation, and we did it here in Florida because I insisted state and local law enforcement agencies… pic.twitter.com/j6tGxV1EKh
Despite this, there are Democrats actively working to undermine border security efforts being pushed by Republicans.
One specific and outrageous example of this occurred last month. A gaggle of Democrats flew to El Salvador to try to bring a deported illegal immigrant back to the United States, as Townhall covered.
In a phone call with reporters on Friday, DeSantis slammed the Democrats who are working to undermine the efforts to secure the border.
“From the political perspective, as a Republican, they [the Democrats] keep giving us a gift,” DeSantis told Townhall on the call.
“I mean…we have all these issues in our country, and you're flying down to El Salvador to run interference for this guy? I mean, it’s just unbelievable but I think that was one of the issues from the election in ‘24. Some of these voters, they may not have been Republicans, but they look at the Democrats as just being so far off the reservation with respect to illegal immigration,” DeSantis explained.
“They voted against the Laken Riley Act. They will vote against mandatory deportations of very serious criminals…I think there’s a lot of voters out there that may agree with the Democrats on some other issues, but on this one, they’re just so far off the reservation…I think that’s one of the reasons why the Democratic Party’s brand is in the toilet,” he concluded. “Even Hakeem Jeffries had to tell the congressional Democrats to stop going to El Salvador, because it makes them look really really bad…They could focus on things that people actually care about…it’s just a party that is adrift.”
On the call, DeSantis confirmed that his state will continue to vigorously go after illegal aliens and have them deported.
