TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling state lawmakers into a special session to help carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s promises for a swift crackdown on immigration.

Trump is preparing more than 100 executive orders starting Day One of the new White House administration, in what amounts to a shock-and-awe campaign on border security, deportations and a rush of other policy priorities.

While Trump and his advisers have pledged mass deportations, many questions remain about how they would deport anywhere close to the 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally.

DeSantis Schedules Special Session Towards End of January

DeSantis announced Monday he’s scheduling the special session for the week of Jan. 27, the week after Trump is sworn in, so that state lawmakers will be poised to help implement the incoming president’s policies immediately.

“State and local officials in Florida must help the Trump administration enforce our nation’s immigration laws,” DeSantis said. “In order to do that effectively, we are going to need legislation to impose additional duties on local officials and provide funding for those local officials.”

The Republican governor said he’s prepared to suspend elected officials from office if they are “neglecting their duties” under the new immigration mandates. DeSantis has removed multiple officials from office, including two state attorneys, arguing they were failing to prosecute certain crimes.

DeSantis said he anticipates allocating tens of millions of dollars in new funding to help state and local officials expand their enforcement and detention efforts and said he would consider activating the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard to carry out in-state enforcement measures.

“There also needs to be measures to hold people accountable who are violating our anti-sanctuary policies,” he said. “Florida needs to make sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally.”

President of Florida Senate Says Immigration Is a ‘Federal Issue’

Ben Albritton, the Republican president of the Florida Senate, has been more measured in his comments on how the state might carry out the Trump administration’s immigration policies, telling reporters in December that immigration is a “federal issue.”

At the time, Albritton voiced support for phasing out a measure that allows Florida students who are undocumented to qualify for in-state college tuition. Albritton said the issue should be approached “with balance … so that we’re not disrupting families.”

On Monday, DeSantis called for repealing the law. Albritton’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press following the governor’s announcement.

Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell told the AP she doesn’t see a reason for holding a special session instead of addressing the issues during the regular legislative session, which begins March 4.

“During special session, there’s restricted ability for the public and stakeholders to have input, and this is a really big issue,” Driskell said.

DeSantis is also calling on Florida lawmakers to pass hurricane relief and work on reforms for the state’s condominium market, which has seen rising prices following a safety law passed by state lawmakers in 2022 in the wake of the Surfside condominium building collapse, which killed 98 people in June 2021. The governor also wants legislators to overhaul Florida’s citizen ballot initiative process for proposing constitutional amendments, after alleging fraud in the petition drive that got a measure on the 2024 ballot that would have expanded abortion rights.

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, criticized the governor for not calling for steps to address the state’s stormy property insurance market or rising cost of living, saying the Republican Party prefers to “play politics instead of solving problems.”

In other states, Democratic governors are mounting a resistance movement against the incoming Trump administration, looking for ways to shield their states from potential federal policies restricting abortion and transgender rights, among other things. Some prominent Democratic governors, meanwhile, have taken a more conciliatory approach in an effort to forge a working relationship with the new administration.