Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, right, hold a press conference in Del Rio, Texas, to talk about a three-week effort by a contingent of Florida law enforcement officers to help enforce the U.S.-Mexico border. (Ana Ceballos/Miami Herald/TNS)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he will send state law enforcement officers to the Southern border in Texas, a tactical maneuver that will test how far the state will go to help enforce immigration law as the Republican governor prepares to launch a presidential campaign.

The governor’s office said hundreds of state troopers, police and national guard soldiers, plus boats and planes, are ready to head to the border as early as Wednesday. The state’s response is being done under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a partnership among all states to provide mutual aid.

DeSantis’ response comes at a time when political tensions over immigration are particularly inflamed, with the expiration of a pandemic-era rule known as Title 42. While a surge in migrants has not happened, border patrol officials fear ending the policy could increase migrant encounters at the southern border in the near future.

“While Biden ignores the crisis he created, Florida stands ready to help Texas respond to this crisis,” DeSantis said in a statement.

The issue of immigration, a powerful motivating issue for Republican base voters, has been a driving policy issue for DeSantis as he increasingly blames the Biden administration for the situation at the border.

“This is something that is the responsibility of Joe Biden. This is a responsibility that he has defaulted on really from day one of his presidency,” DeSantis said last week. “Obviously if we had a different administration it would be a lot easier to actually deal with the problem at its source.”

This year’s mission will not be the first time DeSantis has sent assets to help Texas officers respond to immigration issues. In the summer of 2021, he spent at least $1.6 million to send dozens of state law enforcement officers on a weekslong border mission in Texas.

The seven-week trip, led by three state agencies, was cast by the Republican governor as a needed measure to beef up security at the border amid the failures of Biden’s administration, while critics saw the effort as a state-funded political stunt.

While in Texas, state law enforcement officers made contact with 9,171 undocumented immigrants, the governor’s office said at the time. Just over 3% of those contacts resulted in a criminal arrest, according to data provided by the governor’s office.