00:06And I have to say that, you know, when Christy's name was put before me, by Tom Homan, by the way,
00:12because I wanted him for the border and somehow I thought that was going to be good and that sort,
00:16but he didn't want the upper job.
00:18And I said, who do you recommend?
00:20Christy Noem.
00:21I said, oh, are you kidding?
00:22She's great, but she's such a fine, elegant person.
00:26He said, sir, she's tough as hell.
00:28I said, are you sure?
00:30You are tough as hell.
00:32I tell you, and you do it in a very nice way, but you are.
00:35If you ever saw her ride a horse, she rides a horse like she should be in the rodeo.
00:40She's like an unbelievable horse person.
00:44And you have done a fantastic job.
00:46And Steve Miller would even agree to that.
00:48And he likes nobody, by the way.
00:50He likes, I don't think he likes anybody.
00:52And another one we like is Ron.
00:54And Ron, would you say a few words, please?
00:56Sure.
00:56Well, thank you, Mr. President.
00:58Welcome back to Florida.
01:00And I think this is the first time you've been back since the events of a couple weeks.
01:03So just let me say, as somebody that was serving on active duty in Iraq back in the day,
01:09we witnessed the number of our troops that were killed or wounded by the Iranians.
01:13We know that they're a militant Islamic regime that was hell-bent on getting nuclear weapons.
01:19And under Joe Biden, they were about to get nuclear weapons.
01:21And because of your strong actions, those dreams and those ambitions have been reduced to rubble.
01:28And I thank you, I know a lot of veterans thank you, and people in Florida really thank you for stepping up and really making a strong, tough, but strong decision.
01:37I think we're much safer as a result of that.
01:39Now, on the immigration, I think President Trump's election represented the chance for us to finally solve this illegal immigration and border problem once and for all.
01:51I knew he was going to do the border, although he did it very quickly and very thoroughly.
01:56I think that no one can say that that's been anything but a spectacular success.
02:00But then we have the issue of Biden let in how many millions of people?
02:05And you had millions that had been in over decades previous to that.
02:08You can't have a country if you don't have respect for the rule of law.
02:12You can't have a country if foreigners get to decide who comes in.
02:16No, we, the American people, make that decision, who's allowed or not allowed to come into our country.
02:22We've seen Europe be overrun by open borders, so we're not going to let that happen here.
02:27So when the president got elected, I knew that the states had an important role to play in facilitating this really, really historic mission.
02:35We're the only state in America, Florida, that requires full cooperation with ICE from all state and local law enforcement entities.
02:47And what is the net result of that?
02:49We have these agreements for these 287G task force with sheriff's departments, police departments, state agencies.
02:56And it's really instrumental in rounding up a lot of really bad people who shouldn't be here.
03:02If you look at the number of those full-blown 287G agreements that have been executed around the country, the state of Florida counts for 60 percent of those.
03:13If you look at the number of immigration arrests of illegal aliens on any given day, the arrests happening in Florida constitute between 15 and 20 percent nationwide.
03:24So we're all in on this because we understand how important it is to our citizens.
03:29It crowds schools.
03:30It crowds medical.
03:31It crowds housing.
03:32Yes, you have illegal alien crime as well, and people want the problem solved.
03:37And the only way we're going to solve it is if states like Florida step up and help the president, help Secretary Noem get the job done.
03:44Now, this facility here was really in response to us working with DHS and ICE from the time the president got sworn in.
03:51And the number one thing they kept coming back to was, you know, Biden decimated the agency.
03:56I mean, let's just be clear.
03:57You could have illegals in Florida.
03:59Biden would just release them.
04:00Even when they had notices or they had orders to be removed, Biden wouldn't send them back.
04:05So there were interior enforcement collapsed under Biden.
04:08So they're building it back up.
04:10But they're like, we need detention space in order to be able to bring about more deportations.
04:15And so what we have here can hold 3,000 now.
04:19We have 2,000 facility up at Camp Blanding that we're going to be open, which is our National Guard site.
04:25But think about what you have here.
04:27They come here.
04:28Say they already have been ordered to be deported.
04:30You drive them 2,000 feet to the runway, and then they're gone.
04:34It's a one-stop shop.
04:36And this airport that's been here for a long time is the perfectly secure location.
04:41It's going to make a big difference.
04:42And let me just thank everyone who was involved.
04:45We got the call from DHS a little bit more than a week ago.
04:48And here we are eight days later with this facility open.
04:52And as soon as Air Force One departs, it will be swept, and it will be open for business to be able to do.
04:58But our goal here is to process them and be able to effectuate their return to their home country.
05:05This is the opposite of what they were doing in New York by just putting them up in a hotel
05:09and then just letting them stay there indefinitely.
05:12No, we want to be able to send back.
05:15And when you walk into the processing, the president and I, Secretary Noam Kevin Guthrie, walk through that initial intake,
05:21the first thing you see is information on how to go home on your own.
05:25Why would you want to come through Alligator Alcatraz if you can just go home on your own?
05:30I think a lot of people are going to make that decision.
05:32So you're going to have a lot of deportations that are going to be done by the administration,
05:37but I think you're going to have a lot of voluntary as well.
05:41So this is a force multiplier for the president's efforts.
05:44I would just say and echo what Secretary Noam says.
05:47There is no reason why other states can't be doing it.
05:51And I know Louisiana, Texas, a couple of them, but we've got how – I mean, if only the red states did this,
05:57they would be able to expand their capacity by tens of thousands, maybe 50, 100,000 on a given day.
06:04That's how you really start to make a difference.
06:06And so we're proud to be able to partner with the Trump administration on that.
06:10Mr. President, thanks for coming down.
06:12I think you highlighting this is going to move the needle in a big way throughout the country,
06:17and I think it's going to help all of us achieve the really big results that I think our voters want to see.
