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During a recent press conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis demonstrated his characteristic direct approach when confronting a reporter over terminology used to describe illegal immigration.
A Jacksonville-based journalist attempted to question DeSantis about potential economic impacts on Florida’s industries resulting from Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation policies.
TODAY: Governor Ron DeSantis schools a reporter on using 'undocumented immigrants'
Reporter: FL is home to 100,000s of undocumented immigrants…@GovRonDeSantis: "They're illegal aliens. That's the statutory term. […] If I get in my car and forget my wallet, I don't have my… pic.twitter.com/dSdid42pNZ
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) January 23, 2025
The exchange took an unexpected turn when the reporter used the term “undocumented immigrants,” prompting an immediate correction from DeSantis who took issue with the politically softened language.
The governor emphasized that federal law specifically uses the term “illegal aliens”, and proceeded to explain why the distinction matters.
“Well, you know, just to be—so the federal government has made clear that the statutory term—it’s not undoc—they’re illegal aliens. That’s the statutory term.
That’s what it is. And I think it’s to try to water down. I mean, like, undocumented, it’s like if I get in my car and I forget my wallet, OK, I don’t have my document on me like my driver’s license.
But, I mean, I still have a right to drive. I just may have made a mistake. This is intentional to come in illegally. It’s not just a question of missing a document.
It’s a question of, you know, you violated the law that were very clear and knowingly and with the help of the cartels in many cases.”
The reporter quickly adjusted his terminology and rephrased his question about the potential impact on various industries, mentioning agriculture, farming, construction, and hospitality sectors.
Governor Ron DeSantis isn’t messing around:
“If you have been deported and you come to this state and you're here illegally and you commit crimes, we are throwing the book at you. You are going to regret coming to the state of Florida."
🔥🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/fBz7tb6YRM
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) March 15, 2024
“I’ll rephrase that. So, Florida is home to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who are—illegal aliens, if you want to call it, who are working in areas of agriculture, farming, construction, hospitality.
I’m just wondering, once we start to see, you know, the significant roundups of these people, is there a plan in place to help those industries, to prevent those industries from experiencing true hardship, financial hardship?”
Before DeSantis could fully elaborate on his response regarding industry impacts, he began referencing previous immigration legislation: “So, here’s what I’d say. They made the same arguments on 23 when we did our immigration. Kyan wrote, we did e-verify. When you now—any of those industries, when they hire new people, they’ve got to verify their immigration status. Otherwise, they can’t work. And people said, you are not going to be able…”
The interaction notably highlighted the reporter’s swift compliance with the governor’s preferred terminology.
