Republican congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar has warned Donald Trump that some of his immigration enforcement efforts have “gone too far”, saying Hispanic voters who helped return him to the White House in 2024 now feel betrayed.
The Florida representative made the comments in a campaign advert, marking a renewed public break with the president’s deportation policies weeks before the midterm elections.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Ms Salazar says in the advert. She claims that, in July, half of the 50,000 people detained had no criminal record, and urges Mr Trump to be cautious about the advice he receives on immigration policy.
“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” she says. “You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. I’m not talking about giving them amnesty. I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.”
Ms Salazar has previously criticised the president’s immigration crackdown. Her intervention comes as she seeks re-election in a Republican-leaning Miami-area district where almost three-quarters of residents are Hispanic, according to Census Bureau data.
She has represented the district in Congress since 2021 and is being challenged by Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former CBS News Miami presenter who won his party’s primary in August.
Mr Rodriguez criticised both the advert and Ms Salazar’s record on immigration. “That video is mind-boggling,” he said in an interview.
“Let’s be clear: María Elvira Salazar is part of Donald Trump’s immigration agenda,” he added. “She tries to paint herself as an advocate and a champion of immigrants, but she votes contrary to that.”
Ms Salazar, who was born in Miami’s Little Havana and is the daughter of Cuban exiles, previously worked as a television journalist. Her congressional office says she has interviewed Nicolás Maduro and Fidel Castro.
In Congress, she has supported immigration reform that would bring undocumented workers “out of the shadows”. She has said immigrants who have lived in the United States for years, have no criminal record and pay taxes should be eligible for renewable legal work status.
July was the first month of Mr Trump’s second term in which people arrested solely for civil immigration violations, rather than pending criminal charges or convictions, accounted for more than half of those detained.
The White House was contacted for comment on Ms Salazar’s advert.
