Representative Salazar breaks with Trump over immigration enforcement tactics

Campaign ad outside the White House

Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar released a 30-second campaign advertisement on 17 September 2026, directly criticising President Donald Trump over the federal government's mass deportation operations. Filmed in both English and Spanish in front of the White House, the ad targets the administration's aggressive enforcement agenda ahead of the 3 November midterm elections. Salazar, a Cuban-American lawmaker who has represented Florida's 27th congressional district in Miami since 2021, argued that the enforcement measures have alienated the demographic that backed the president two years earlier.

Salazar addressed the president directly on camera regarding the political fallout in her South Florida district.

The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.

The congresswoman warned Trump to scrutinise guidance from his internal policy advisers, asserting that half of the 50,000 individuals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July had no criminal records. She called on the administration to create legal pathways rather than relying on indiscriminate detentions.

In the broadcast, Salazar positioned immigration policy alongside foundational American political milestones.

You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan for communism. I'm not talking about giving them amnesty. I'm talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.

Enforcement tactics and casualty scrutiny

The public dispute follows a sequence of federal enforcement actions that generated national controversy. Earlier in 2026, federal agents deployed to Minneapolis during street-level raids shot and killed two American citizens. In July, federal agents arrested more than 51,000 migrants nationwide through ICE and Customs and Border Protection, the highest single-month total recorded during Trump's second term. That same month, traffic-stop shootings by federal agents in Maine and Texas resulted in the deaths of a Mexican citizen and a Colombian citizen. The administration also began revoking Temporary Protected Status for up to 1.3 million individuals, impacting communities with protections dating back to 1998.

Shifting voter sentiment in South Florida

The enforcement push has altered political dynamics in Miami-Dade County, Florida's most populous county, where Hispanic residents make up 62% of the 1.3 million registered voters and 76% of registered Republicans. Although Trump carried Salazar's district by 15 percentage points in 2024, recent polling shows Salazar tied with Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez, a former television news anchor. A survey conducted in August by a Republican pollster showed that while 63% of local Hispanic voters supported deporting undocumented immigrants in principle, 58% opposed the specific methods ICE deployed, with only 29% approving of the tactical execution. Local discontent has centred on communities like Doral, where large Venezuelan populations face the loss of protected status.

Broader Republican midterm positioning

National polling reflects a parallel drop in support for the administration's border agenda. A Reuters and Ipsos poll conducted between 11 September and 14 September 2026 placed Trump's overall presidential approval rating at 35%, with public approval of his immigration management falling to 39% from 50% recorded in January 2025. Facing difficult reelection bids, several Republican candidates have sought distance from White House messaging. In Iowa, Senate candidate Ashley Hinson declined to appear alongside Vice President JD Vance during a campaign stop, while several congressional candidates skipped the party's midterm convention in Dallas, Texas.