Florida Republican María Elvira Salazar Tells Trump Some ICE Enforcement Has Gone Too Far

A Florida Republican running for reelection has publicly challenged President Donald Trump over his immigration-enforcement policies, telling the president that some of his administration’s efforts have gone too far.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who represents Florida’s 27th Congressional District in the Miami area, made the comments in a campaign advertisement released September 17.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar said in the bilingual advertisement. She also said that Hispanic Americans who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election “feel betrayed today.”

The comments mark a public disagreement between Salazar and an administration whose immigration agenda she has generally supported.

Salazar Directly Addresses Trump

Salazar’s advertisement was filmed outside the White House and was delivered in both English and Spanish.

Rather than calling for an end to immigration enforcement, Salazar drew a distinction between enforcing immigration law and how that enforcement is carried out.

“You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism,” she said, while adding that she was not advocating amnesty.

Her message was instead that immigrants should be treated with what she described as dignity while federal authorities continue enforcing immigration laws.

Salazar also warned Trump to examine the information being provided to him by his advisers on immigration policy.

The White House had not immediately responded to requests for comment when the advertisement was reported.

Why the Criticism Matters

Salazar is a three-term Republican congresswoman representing a district that includes much of Miami-Dade County and has a large Hispanic population.

She is seeking a fourth term and faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former television news anchor. Both candidates are Cuban American and have backgrounds in journalism.

Trump endorsed Salazar’s reelection earlier this year. In February, he described her as doing a “truly fantastic job” representing Florida’s 27th District and gave her his endorsement.

Her new criticism therefore represents a notable difference with a president who has made immigration enforcement a central part of his administration’s agenda.

ICE Arrests Have Increased

Salazar’s comments come amid a substantial increase in immigration arrests.

Preliminary government data reviewed by Reuters showed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made nearly 51,000 arrests in August, the third consecutive monthly record. Deportations, however, averaged roughly 1,200 per day and remained relatively stable compared with earlier in the year.

Reuters reported that more than three-quarters of recent arrests involved people who did not have criminal convictions. Some of those detained had pending asylum applications or other legal claims that could complicate immediate removal.

The administration has said its enforcement efforts are aimed at people who are unlawfully in the United States, particularly those considered public-safety or national-security threats. Reuters reported that the administration continues to defend its broader enforcement campaign despite the increasing number of arrests involving people without criminal convictions.

Salazar Has Previously Raised Concerns

The September advertisement was not Salazar’s first public criticism of particular immigration-enforcement actions.

Earlier in the week, she spoke out after reports that Luis Galeano, a Nicaraguan journalist whose asylum application had been pending, was detained by federal immigration authorities.

Salazar said the government should distinguish between people who pose a criminal threat and political exiles who have fled persecution. She argued that immigration law should be enforced while political exiles are not treated as criminals.

Her latest advertisement expands that criticism from an individual case to broader concerns about the administration’s enforcement strategy.

Democrats Challenge Salazar’s Record

Salazar’s Democratic opponent has argued that her criticism does not match her congressional record.

Rodriguez has accused Salazar of supporting the administration’s immigration policies while now attempting to distance herself from their consequences. Democrats have also pointed to Salazar’s votes supporting federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including immigration-enforcement agencies.

Those are campaign arguments, however, rather than independent findings about the effectiveness or legality of the administration’s immigration policies.

Salazar’s campaign has presented her advertisement as a call for Trump to adjust how immigration enforcement is conducted rather than as a rejection of immigration enforcement itself.

The Broader Republican Debate

Salazar’s intervention comes as other Republicans have also expressed disagreements with parts of the administration’s policies.

The issue has become particularly visible in states and congressional districts with large Hispanic populations. Reuters reported that Salazar’s comments reflect concerns among some Republicans about the political effects of the administration’s immigration strategy ahead of the November midterm elections.

At the same time, Republican candidates continue to differ in how closely they align themselves with Trump’s immigration agenda. Some have emphasized continued enforcement, while others have focused on particular cases or methods of enforcement rather than opposing the broader policy.

That makes Salazar’s comments part of a larger debate within the Republican Party over the scope and implementation of immigration enforcement.

A Separate ICE Leadership Dispute

The administration also faced a separate development involving ICE leadership on September 17.

Trump withdrew the nomination of Lance Schroyer to become ICE director after Republican Sen. Rand Paul blocked the nominee’s confirmation hearing. Paul had sought additional information about investigations into the deaths of two U.S. citizens during immigration-enforcement encounters in Minneapolis earlier in the year.

ICE currently does not have a Senate-confirmed director. David Venturella has been serving as acting director since June.

The episode illustrates that disagreements over immigration enforcement are not limited to Democrats and the administration. Some Republicans in Congress have also raised questions about specific aspects of the government’s approach.

What Salazar’s Statement Does—and Does Not—Mean

Salazar has not called for an end to deportations or federal immigration enforcement.

Her stated position is that immigration laws should continue to be enforced but that the administration should distinguish between dangerous offenders and other immigrants, including political exiles and people without criminal records.

Her criticism therefore represents a dispute over how immigration enforcement is being conducted, rather than a wholesale rejection of Trump’s immigration agenda.

The political significance of the advertisement will depend in part on how voters in her Miami-area district respond. For now, the confirmed development is that a Republican member of Congress who has received Trump’s endorsement has publicly told the president that some of his immigration-enforcement efforts have gone too far.

With the November 3 midterm elections approaching, immigration is likely to remain an important issue in congressional campaigns, but individual candidates are taking different positions on the administration’s enforcement policies.