(The Center Square) – At a border security summit hosted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Cochise, Arizona, where he announced a new strike force among sheriffs and law enforcement agencies to combat cartel and border crime, two Florida sheriffs shared their commitment to securing the border. 

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd discussed the success of a recent multi-agency human trafficking operation in his county where they rescued 24 Cuban women smuggled through Central America, Mexico into Texas and Florida. 

He said if it wasn't for Gov. DeSantis, "who cares about not only the people in Florida, not only about the people in the United States but everyone's safety and security," these women wouldn't have been saved from being "hauled across the border and held as property." 

He also described how three people were killed by a foreign national in the U.S. illegally operating a car illegally and caused an accident. Had the perpetrator not been smuggled across the border, these people wouldn't be dead, he said. 

"But that's not enough," he said, "there's the drug cartels we deal with." He cited examples of multi-state and multi-agency busts of cartel schemes operating through federal prisons that his deputies helped shut down last fall. His deputies were also involved in a multi-state bust of a cartel operation that led to the seizure of enough fentanyl in his county to kill 2.7 million people. Florida law enforcement officers in one operation last year seized enough fentanyl to kill everyone in Florida. 

"And we're not even on the border," he said. "I can't imagine what these folks and their colleagues are going through. I can't imagine what the people who live here are going through because I do know what's going on through the rest of the country while our president and the administration stands silent and allows the people of this country to be victimized. That is simply unacceptable."

 He also said if law enforcement officers aren't being treated right in other states, "come to Florida. We'll treat you right. The governor is giving a bonus for law enforcement officers to come and serve with us. In Florida, we put bad guys in jail because we've got a governor who's got our back."

One year after DeSantis launched Florida's Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Program, Florida has awarded over 1,750 bonuses to newly employed recruits from 48 states. At least 530 of them relocated from out of state.

Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey said, "Illegal immigration doesn't just impact the border. It filters into every community in this country. It's filtered into my community. Government's one and only responsibility is to protect its citizens. And the administration in Washington has forgotten that. In fact, I don't think they've forgotten it, they've ignored it. They have put our citizen's lives at risk by not doing their jobs of security our borders.

"What you see here today orchestrated by Gov. DeSantis is a united front of sheriffs and law enforcement officers from across the country who are all facing the same things: increased fentanyl deaths, … human smuggling, … crimes. That's an increase in victims. It's an increase in U.S. citizens that are being victimized by those coming into this country illegally. Just the fact that you cross the border makes it illegal."

In a 24-month period in his county, he said there were 172 overdose deaths "because of the increase in fentanyl that is flooding our streets" coming from the southern border. He also said human smuggling was increasing "because we have opened the floodgates and allowed those to come into our country."

He said local law enforcement was "partnered together to fight this. Our choice is very simple in Florida, we could sit back and say, 'we'll fight this in our backyard.' No, let's fight it on the front. Let's join together and be united. To put our money where our mouth is. 

"Gov. DeSantis is standing here today saying, 'Florida is in this fight. Florida understands this is not just impacting you here locally it's impacting us."

He said, "the only way we stop this is we say, 'enough is enough.' We are a united front. We are America. This is America's sheriffs right here and enough is enough."