Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system and ramp up border enforcement, vowing to end birthright citizenship, “repel the invasion” at the U.S. southern border and use the “levers at our disposal” to ensure cooperation from Mexico.
The plan, which was unveiled during a campaign trip to the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, ushered in the beginning of a new, policy-focused phase of DeSantis’ presidential bid his campaign has billed as a more direct effort to challenge President Joe Biden.
But the rollout also doubled as an attempt to criticize former President Donald Trump, the heavy front-runner for the GOP’s 2024 White House nomination whose political brand was built in large part on his hard-line — and often inflammatory — rhetoric on immigration and border security.
