Screenshot of X feed of Gov. Ron DeSantis in Orlando on July 23, 2024
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Ron DeSantis says he’s concerned the United States could be hit with a terrorist attack similar in proportion to what took place in Israel last fall, and that Washington is no longer as focused on counterterrorism efforts, meaning that state and local agencies in Florida will need to pick up the slack.
Speaking during the summer conference of the Florida Sheriffs Association in Orlando on Tuesday, the governor segued into that part of his speech after he denounced President Joe Biden on two fronts: the increase of undocumented immigrants that has occurred under his watch and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
DeSantis said he has talked to people involved with tracking terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and believes some of those individuals who migrated across the U.S. border illegally in recent years could be planning attacks on U.S. soil. He did not identify his sources.
“The training that’s being done is not to do another 9/11, where you take down the equivalent of the World Trade Center,” he said. “The training that’s being done is to try to do another Oct. 7, like was done in Israel, where you could go to some community and you have people, terrorists, that are going to kill as many people as they can, and that creates risks for American communities. There’s no question about that.”
DeSantis explained why he brought up the subject in front of hundreds of local law enforcement officers.
“A lot of the feds, they’re being told in the bureaucracy, terrorism is a thing in the past, they’re being told not to worry about it. I had somebody who was a targeting officer, back in the day, that just went on the DHS website. ‘Okay, I think I suspect some terrorist activity,’ and this was in Florida. [He] submitted it. And instead of them taking it and wanting to follow up, they sent back, ‘You should talk to your local authorities.’ And they’re like, ‘Who?’ And they said the local Division of Emergency Management.”
‘The FBI remains concerned’
The Phoenix reached out to both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for comment.
A spokesperson for the FBI said the agency would offer no direct comment about the governor’s remarks but sent copies of speeches about terrorism made by FBI Director Christopher Wray since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, which did not indicate any change in how the agency handles terrorism cases.
Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee last December, Wray said that the FBI “remains concerned about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan” and that the intent of foreign terrorist organizations “such as ISIS and al-Qaida and their affiliates, is to carry out or inspire large-scale attacks in the United States.”
“While the terrorism threat continues to evolve, the FBI’s resolve to counter that threat remains constant,” he said. “We continually adapt and rely heavily on the strength of our federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and international partnerships to combat all terrorist threats to the United States and our interests.
“To that end, we use all available lawful investigative techniques and methods to combat these threats while continuing to collect, analyze, and share intelligence concerning the threats posed by violent extremists who desire to harm Americans and U.S. interests. We will continue to share information and encourage the sharing of information among our numerous partners via our Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country, and our legal attaché offices around the world.”
In April, Wray told the Standing Committee on Law and National Security of the American Bar Association that [t]errorism is one of the most pressing national security challenges we face, and it remains the FBI’s number one priority. I’ve been very public in saying that at a time when the terrorism threat was already elevated, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans inside the United States to a whole ‘nother level.”
Suspected ISIS ties
The U.S. Border Patrol reported last fall that 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists entered the United States during fiscal year 2023.
Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles last month, the Associated Press reported. The news agency said that those individuals entered the county last spring and passed through the government’s screening process without information turning up that would have identified potential terrorism-related concerns.
DeSantis told the sheriffs that, traditionally, counter-terrorism efforts have been led by federal agencies because “you don’t have intel coming in from Afghanistan to your sheriff’s department. It’s outside your purview.
“But what that tells me, and what I’ve seen is, I think they are acting like now the terrorism is really just a local issue. So, this is something that we’re going to have to step up and do more for because, since 9/11, it’s really been the various federal alphabet agencies that have been taking the lead, and it was almost like if you wanted to do a lot locally, they would tell you, ‘No, no. This is our purview.’
“I think you’ve seen a shift over the last few years. … I think that some people just think that the threat is no longer. I don’t believe that; I think the threat is real. I think we’ve got a lot of soft targets now in this country so, and from a Florida perspective, I think that we want to do is, say, okay, if they’re going to abandon the field, then what do we need to do to be able to lean in and be aggressive if this were to come to our state and to our communities.”
Familiar rhetoric
DeSantis is well known for doing what he can to stop undocumented immigrants from entering Florida, although that has historically been a federal issue. In March, he ordered officers from several state agencies to stop undocumented immigrants from Haiti from entering South Florida.
The governor has used border crossings as a cudgel against Biden for years, including during his unsuccessful run for president, saying in 2021, for example, “The reversal and weakening of our policies have amounted to an open invitation to folks all across the world to just simply come through the southern border illegally and basically get a ticket to ride to the interior of the country.”
Border crossings by asylum seekers has declined since last month, when Biden imposed new controls on the asylum process.
In 2023, the Florida Legislature passed a law criminalizing transportation of undocumented immigrants into the state, which was struck down by a federal judge (the state is appealing that decision).
“We want to be helpful at the state level. We’re thinking things through about, okay, if the federal government is not going to be doing some of these core responsibilities. How do we work collaboratively together with local and state to be able to fill some of these gaps.”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office said he stood by his remarks and there was no need for elaboration.
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