Gov. DeSantis says he convinced Donald Trump administration to speed up deportations

Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking credit for the Donald Trump administration deporting suspected undocumented immigrants more rapidly, saying immigration Judges are able “to go through the pipeline and get smart on this stuff” more quickly than before.

“The initial training was not very quick. Let’s just put it that way,” DeSantis said while speaking at the University of Florida.

“And our position was like, listen, you know, we got to get going. So they have streamlined the training. I don’t know exactly how long, whether that number’s right, but I do know it’s weeks and not months.”

DeSantis added that while some people “have a right to be here,” hearings should be handled quickly.

“Are we going to do like an O.J. Simpson trial just to somebody who’s here illegally?” DeSantis said. “We’ve got to have a way to make these determinations quickly and then have the law be enforced very swiftly as a result of that.”

He noted that his administration “made the suggestion to the President when he came down in the Summer” that Florida can help, especially given that Article III Judges aren’t necessary for deportation proceedings.

“We have judge advocates in our National Guard. They can be trained as immigration Judges, and they can help process this along. And so that had to go through a lot of bureaucratic back-and-forth with the Department of Justice and some other things. But I think they now have a pathway where you can do that.”

The state has facilities already live (such as Alligator Alcatraz in South Florida and Deportation Depot and Northeast Florida), in addition to the still conceptual Panhandle Pokey.

DeSantis said last week that the outflow of inmates is improving.

“We’re getting to the point where the folks that get processed in there, there’s a pretty quick turnaround. And that was the vision from the beginning. My job is not to just put people up indefinitely,” DeSantis said.

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