Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could be better known as Ron DePorter.
The Sunshine State’s chief executive has been pushing a plan to have the federal government go along with DeSantis’ appointments of Florida National Guard attorneys to serve as immigration court judges to speed the process of having illegal aliens removed from the country.
And on a Tuesday visit to Florida’s state-run immigration detention center known “Alligator Alcatraz,” President Donald Trump got behind it.
While fielding questions from reporters in Ochopee, in southwestern Florida, Trump was asked specifically about DeSantis’ big idea.
His response was unequivocal.
President Trump approves of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan to deputize the National Guard as immigration judges to speed up deportations.
Reporter: “Would you be open to that?”
President Trump: “Yes. He has my approval.” pic.twitter.com/VtjpkjCmmj
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) July 1, 2025
“Governor DeSantis has proposed using National Guard, deputizing them as immigration judges, to get through this massive backlog of people in immigration court,” Anna Giaritelli, a reporter from the conservative news outlet the Washington Examiner, said.
“Would you be open to that?”
Is Ron DeSantis the best governor in the country?
“Yes, he has my approval,” Trump responded.
As an idea, using National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps officers as immigration court judges is groundbreaking.
The vast backlog of illegal immigration cases in the United States — thanks in large part to four years of insanity under the Joe Biden administration — is the major stumbling block to actually dealing with the mess Biden left behind.
According to a May 1 Newsweek report on DeSantis’ idea, there are 3.7 million cases awaiting adjudication.
DeSantis’ proposal by itself would not solve the problem on a national basis.
According to The Tampa Tribune, the governor has identified nine National Guard JAG officers who could do the work, and nine men and women, no matter how dedicated and talented, are not going to be enough.
But there’s no doubt that it could supercharge the deportation process — at least in Florida.
And if it became a model that other governors could adopt — other red state governors, at least — it could well be at least one of the rungs on the ladder that leads the country up and out of the morass of the Biden years.
Speaking to reporters at Trump’s side at a different point in Trump’s Ochopee visit, DeSantis was brimming with enthusiasm about “Alligator Alcatraz” — as well as his immigration judge idea.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says they are offering National Guard troops and others to be deputized as immigration judges, and President Trump indicates Attorney General Pam Bondi will approve this, which will RAPIDLY speed up deportations.
DeSantis: “We are offering up our… pic.twitter.com/BV9J0RAbgB
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) July 1, 2025
“One of the things I think is exciting about this, we’re offering up our National Guard and other folks in Florida to be deputized as immigration judges,” he said.
“I’ll have the National Guard Judge Advocates here, someone has a notice to appear, Biden would tell them to come back in three years to appear. Now, you’ll be able to appear in like a day or two.”
And from that appearance it can be a short step to deportation.
Americans who remember the Republican primary fight prior to the 2024 election know well that Trump and DeSantis have not always been on the same political side. But on the urgency of dealing with the illegal immigration issue, they’re united.
DeSantis has shown already that he’s not afraid to go national with his position (sending illegals to the tony liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard is the kind of showmanship that goes into national legend), while Trump essentially built his early political career around it.
And with Americans having had years to see the often tragic results of Biden’s de facto open-border policy — in the deaths of innocents like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray and, more recently, Larisha Sharell Thompson — there is basically no credible doubt about the danger a vast population of undocumented criminals poses to the country at large.
DeSantis knows it. Trump knows it. And the honest part of America knows it, too.
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