Florida State Guard director’s approval moves forward as deployment nears

TALLAHASSEE — As the state prepares to send members of the Florida State Guard to Texas, the Senate began moving forward Monday with confirming the State Guard’s director.

Meanwhile, a House panel revised a bill that deals with background-check requirements for members of the State Guard, which DeSantis revived in 2022 after it was dormant for decades.

State Guard Director Mark Thieme told members of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security Committee, which unanimously backed his confirmation, that he is preparing to start the deployment process to Texas next week to help with border-security issues.

“I’m prepared to offer up to a platoon and sustain that for a period of months,” Thieme told the committee. “What I cannot say with certainty — in front of the committee today sir — is exactly what Texas is going to ask for. It may be a squad. It may be a platoon.”

Thieme said he anticipates members sent to Texas will be involved with checkpoint operations, supporting patrols, distribution and logistics.

“Those types of activities where the Texas National Guard and Texas State Guard and the Texas authorities are under capacity in various areas,” Thieme said.

DeSantis on Thursday announced he was sending members of the State Guard and offering additional members of the Florida National Guard to Texas.

“I believe that a state has a right to fortify its own borders,” DeSantis said during an appearance at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville.

“And, so, if Texas is helping to erect barriers, putting up razor wire, doing other things to keep illegal aliens out, I want to be helpful with them doing it,” DeSantis added. “I don’t want to be part of the federal government trying to tear down these barriers and let more people in illegally.”

Appointed in October, Thieme said he wasn’t involved in the governor’s decision and was advised a day before the deployment was announced.

He is the third person to hold the director position since DeSantis re-established the State Guard.

Thieme served more than 35 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, most recently as a senior operations officer.

In supporting the confirmation, Sen. Victor Torres, D-Orlando, expressed some caution about the deployment.

“I don’t want men and women to go to another state and be caught in something that could be dangerous for them or be involved in some kind of shooting or something,” Torres said.

Thieme said the State Guard is under an “emergency activation authority.”

The State Guard is approved for up to 400 members and has about 170. Thieme said a challenge is that timelines ahead of the hurricane season for recruitment, equipment procurement and training are not fully synchronized.

“I’m staring very intently at the May and June timeframe,” Thieme said, referring to the start of hurricane season.

Thieme must still go before the Ethics and Elections Committee before his confirmation is put before the full Senate.

The revamped House bill (HB 1551) was unanimously supported by the House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee. It was amended to remove part of the bill that drew questions from Democrats. That part would have expanded the governor’s power to activate the State Guard such as during periods of civil unrest and “at any other time deemed necessary and appropriate.”

State law says the State Guard shall be used “exclusively” within Florida while adding that it can be deployed to support other states.

“I would suspect — I don’t know for fact — that we do have mutual-aid agreements with other states,” House bill sponsor Mike Giallombardo, R-Cape Coral, said. “They can send people here, we can send people there. It’s done with the National Guard all the time.”

The State Guard was initially set up during World War II to replace Florida National Guard members who were deployed abroad. It became inactive in 1947. But DeSantis revived the volunteer force in 2022, and lawmakers provided increased funding last year.

Florida has been sending members of the National Guard and state law-enforcement officers to Texas since May.