00:00I don't think we provide that to Planned Parenthood in Florida.
00:09I don't know that we've ever done, but to the extent that that is something that gives the legislature more ability to protect taxpayers,
00:17I'm sure that they're going to want to take advantage of that, and obviously, you know, we would be receptive.
00:21Governor, you've always been an advocate for restoration in the Everglades.
00:25Is there any concern about what's being built there and the impacts it might have on the –
00:30No, because there's already – so, you know, this alligator Alcatraz for the deportations, it's catchy, right, so it's gotten a lot of play.
00:38The reality is we're leading the country on a state basis and working with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.
00:47I called the special session at the beginning of the year prior to President Trump taking office
00:51because I knew that we needed to make it clear in law that our state and local law enforcement entities had a responsibility
00:58to not just not sabotage but to actively assist because that's how you get most of the interactions.
01:06And so that was a fight.
01:08I mean, the Speaker of the House tried to tank it, and they tried to do an amnesty bill, basically,
01:12and we won because the voters were really upset at what they were trying to do.
01:17So we got that in law, and so we've been doing this, and I think Tom Homan will always cite Florida as the model for collaboration.
01:25The reality, though, is, is, you know, you can go on and you can round up, you know, 25, you know, illegal aliens,
01:33some of whom have records, some of whom may have deportation orders, who knows.
01:37But ICE has limited ability to hold and process them.
01:43They have limited capacity, so we have some in our local jails.
01:46The problem is we have normal U.S. citizen criminals that are in the jails.
01:51And so one of the things they've said to us is, you know, if you can help us expand the footprint
01:56so that we have a place to stage process so that we can effectuate more repatriations of these folks,
02:03that would be beneficial.
02:05So the facility, there's already a training facility in the Everglades.
02:09It's the Collier-Dade Training Airport.
02:12We use it for storm response.
02:14People do use it for training flights.
02:17But what it is is it gets all this process out of the hair of the people of Florida.
02:23You're not going to have to worry about this.
02:25It's remote.
02:26This is something that's already built.
02:28Now, there's different things that are being added to the airport, but there's no different footprint at all.
02:33So it has nothing to do in terms of Everglades impact or restoration.
02:38I think people are just trying to say that because they just don't want Florida assisting with the deportations.
02:43There's a lot of people that want to have open border.
02:45I get that, but that's not the policy of the state.
02:48So we are going to do it.
02:49We'll probably have another staging facility for processing at Camp Blanding.
02:55But the reality is they don't have enough capacity, even close to enough capacity.
03:02This is going to be a force multiplier.
03:04We are not in the – and it's reimbursable by the federal government for costs.
03:08We are not in the business like New York City was doing for so many years, putting people up illegals in hotels and doing all this stuff.
03:18The reason why we're having this to be able to be staged is so the feds can process folks and then remove them from our country.
03:26And that's the only reason why we're interested in this, because it helps fulfill President Trump's mission.
03:33But there will be zero impact on that.
03:35Now, we have been talking about purchasing this for – I mean, it's kind of been in the background.
03:40I've been in favor of us doing it, and I think my plan would probably be if we did eventually purchase it, you know, we would look at potentially just disbanding the facility.
03:51But that facility has been there for a long time, and I'm not sure what that would mean.
03:55Maybe that would help Everglades.
03:57Maybe it won't.
03:58I think most of it's actually not even in Dade County.
04:01It's in Collier County.
04:02So we'll look to see whether that deal gets done.
04:05But in the interim, you don't want to do this in ways that are going to impinge on Floridians and taking away space that we need for other things, particularly to hold actual U.S. citizen criminals.
04:21You don't want folks escaping in neighborhoods or close by.
04:27So this is – there ain't nowhere to escape from.
04:29I can tell you that when you're there.
04:31I mean, it's – you're in a swamp, and, yes, this is a facility that's been built for many years, but, you know, it's as secure as it gets.
04:40And I think what the feds will do is then they will process and then remove.
04:45And so we'll keep that cadence going if it works.
04:48What I'm not going to do is just us being to house and feed indefinitely just for the sake of doing that.
04:56I have no interest in doing that.
04:57I don't think Floridians want us to be doing that.
05:00I don't think that's what the federal government's policy is.
05:03I don't think that's what they want us to do.
05:04I think they want to effectuate the removals, but that's why we're doing it to help effectuate the removals.
05:11And I think it's going to be effective.
05:12And then we'll also – Camp Blanding is in northeastern Florida.
05:16That's where our National Guard has their main training site.
05:19And there's just a lot of room.
05:21There's a lot of ability to potentially do that.
05:23So we're working on that as kind of a northern Florida outpost.
05:28And then the Collier-Dade training airport would be the southern outpost.
05:33Both of those, of course, are very secure facilities and I think would probably serve the mission well.
05:37Can you say it's on cost, sir?
05:39Well, it's reimbursable by the federal government.
05:43I mean, people have said they can get up to 625 million.
05:46It's not going to cost that.
05:48Reality is this is an important federal mission.
05:51It is eligible for reimbursement.
05:53And at the same time, even if it wasn't, we've put our own resources to bear in Florida to protect Floridians against illegal immigration.
06:04For example, I launched Operation Vigilance Century for the boats off the Keys and off southern Florida.
06:12You'd have boats coming in from Haiti, from Cuba, from the Bahamas illegally.
06:17And the Coast Guard's job is to stop.
06:19But what happened – and they do a good job.
06:21But Biden did not have enough Coast Guard ships.
06:25So we supplemented with our vessels, FWC, other agencies.
06:31And I think it's probably now been in effect for close to two years, a year and a half.
06:37But we've – because of our efforts on the state, we've interdicted about 18,000 illegals that were then turned over to the Coast Guard.
06:47And the Coast Guard sent them back, mostly to these island countries.
06:51Here, so what would the cost be if those folks all made it to shore?
06:56Forget about even the crime, although when you stop these people, you are finding in some of the boats firearms, contraband, all this other stuff.
07:05A hundred percent you're finding that in a lot of instances.
07:08But put that aside, just being a public charge, how much does that cost the citizens of Florida?
07:15How much does it cost our schools?
07:17How much does illegal immigration cost our schools in terms – because the U.S. Supreme Court has said, if someone's illegal in the U.S., you still have a right to go to public school on taxpayer time.
07:27I think that decision was actually not rightly decided, but that's happened in the 80s.
07:33And so what about space in schools, overcrowding?
07:37What about all these things?
07:39What about our criminal justice system for folks that do get in trouble with the law?
07:43That adds cost.
07:45So this is reimbursable by the feds.
07:47We obviously submit that and get reimbursed.
07:51But what we've done to fight illegal immigration, some of the things that we've done over the years and continue to do, to me, that's a good use of funds.
08:01Because what people will say is, oh, well, just let the feds do everything.
08:05And the reality is, under Biden, the feds weren't doing anything.
08:08So I had to step up to do that.
08:10Now, under the Trump administration, they are doing all that they can, but they don't have enough resources right now to fully effectuate the president's policy.
08:20So we're stepping up to do that and to be a force multiplier.
08:24But I can tell you, we will save money in the state of Florida if you have no illegal immigration.
08:32I mean, that is just 100% true.
08:34It does impose costs on our communities.
08:37So I'm glad that DHS has signed off on this particular endeavor.
08:43I think it's important.
08:44Our legislature did provide a few hundred million dollars at the beginning of the current calendar year for our sheriffs and some of the others to deal with it.
08:54And I think the one thing is just having a space to process detained people so that you can stage them to be able to send them back.
09:02That's really kind of the main currency that people are looking for now.
09:06So we're in a position, you know, with our Division of Emergency Management, I mean, we can set this stuff up quicker than anybody.
09:12You know, you've seen it over the years.
09:14Obviously, on our hurricane response, you guys haven't seen it as much because they've all been hitting the West Coast.
09:19And hopefully for your sake, you don't, that doesn't show, hopefully nobody gets hit.
09:23But, you know, when they get in the Gulf, it's got to hit something, right?
09:28I mean, that's the problem.
09:29When it comes in the Atlantic, a lot of times they ride the coast or go up.
09:33And so sometimes, you know, the East Coast, I think, has been considered to be a little bit more resistant, knock on wood.
09:39But when we're preparing for hurricanes, I mean, at a moment's notice, you know, we're there.
09:44These counties will be, hey, can you do this?
09:46It's there.
09:46It's there.
09:47We've got a really good, well-oiled machine.
09:49And that's been put into practice not just with storm response.
09:53It's been put into practice when we launched the monoclonal antibody clinics during COVID.
09:59You know, you remember people, they needed treatment.
10:02They weren't getting the treatment.
10:03So we got it.
10:05We set up clinics around the state.
10:06And honestly, we gave thousands of people, got these, and it helped a lot of people.
10:12And that was done, oh, you need something in West Palm.
10:15All right, the next day we'd have something up and running.
10:17That was all emergency response doing that.
10:19And, yeah, we'd have physicians and the health people that would actually operate it.
10:23But to set up and everything, they do it.
10:25All the stuff that we've done here on the coast fighting the illegal immigration.
10:29Heck, the transports, Martha's Vineyard, all this stuff, all done through emergency management.
10:35So we do really, really well with that.
10:37And I think that, I think it's going to work really good.
10:40But, yeah, any sense that somehow, like, this is going to have any impact at all on the overall Everglades is there's zero.
