MIAMI — A Republican congresswoman from Florida broke publicly with President Donald Trump in a new campaign ad Thursday, telling the president that some of his immigration enforcement efforts “have gone too far” and that Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 now “feel betrayed.”
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, who is running for reelection in the heavily Hispanic Miami-area district, speaks straight to the camera in the 30-second ad, recorded in front of the White House in English and Spanish.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the ad. “Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
Salazar cites statistics showing that 50% of the roughly 50,000 people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July had no criminal record. “I’m not talking about giving them amnesty,” she says. “I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land. And only you can do that.”
The ad is a remarkable public break with the president by a member of his own party over immigration, a major political fissure with less than two months until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to the Wall Street Journal. It comes as Trump’s immigration agenda has proven unpopular, with 62% of Americans saying they disapprove of the president’s handling of the issue in a Gallup survey. Just 25% of Hispanic adults approve of Trump, according to an October survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research — down from 44% shortly before he took office in 2025.
Salazar represents Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which includes wide swaths of Miami-Dade County and historic Little Havana. About three-quarters of the population identify as Hispanic, and the district voted for Trump by nearly 15 points in 2024, according to CNN. Trump endorsed Salazar earlier this year.
She faces a challenge from Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former television news anchor. Nonpartisan analysts rate the race as “likely Republican” — somewhat competitive, though Democrats view the seat as one of their better pickup opportunities, Reuters reported.
The rebuke drew immediate fire from House Republicans. House Freedom Caucus leaders said in a statement first shared with Fox News Digital: “President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts should be applauded and continue as is. … Granting illegal aliens any legal status to remain in the United States is amnesty. We reject amnesty.”
The Department of Homeland Security is “focused on delivering the most historic mass deportation campaign in American history — exactly as President Trump promised,” a DHS spokesman said. “Whether Congresswoman Salazar likes it or not, the men and women of ICE are enforcing the laws passed by Congress.”
Trump has encouraged his supporters to act as though his name is on the ballot in the midterms, and has said he would campaign for Republican candidates. But the ad comes after months of fallout from the immigration crackdown, including the killings of two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis earlier this year, according to CNN.
Salazar, a former television journalist of Cuban heritage, has long advocated legal status for some undocumented immigrants. Her campaign said the ad will air throughout South Florida on broadcast television, digital, and streaming platforms.
Sources: Reuters; CNN; Wall Street Journal; Fox News; USA Today.
