Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) sharply criticized President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in a surprising new campaign ad.

Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman called the ad from the South Florida House Republican “stunning.”

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy,” Salazar said.

“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today. 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,” she continued.

Watch below:

POLITICO shared further:

The criticism from Salazar, who represents a red-leaning district based in Miami-Dade County, comes with Republicans increasingly worried that concerns over the economy and the president’s immigration crackdown will roll back gains the party made with Hispanic voters in the general election two years ago.

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Trump’s strong rhetoric on immigration helped propel him to the White House in 2024. But he’s seen his standing on the issue drop massively in the wake of an ill-fated surge of immigration enforcement into Minneapolis last winter that resulted in the deaths of two American protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Even as the White House has sought to dampen public criticism of its mass deportation campaign, just a fourth of Trump’s 2024 voters told a POLITICO poll in August that the president’s push has been too aggressive, numbers that roughly matched totals from January and April polls.

“Salazar wrote the Dignity Act, which would allow some illegal aliens a path to legal status in the U.S.,” Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin said.

Salazar, who has been in Congress since 2021, is running against Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez in November’s general election.

Rodriguez is a former news anchor for CBS News Miami.

Investigative journalist Laura Loomer said it was “always a bad idea” for President Trump to endorse Salazar, who she called “pro-illegal alien.”

“I said this back in February and I said it long before February as well. Which political genius who works for our President did the vetting on Salazar? It was obvious from the start that endorsing her was a bad idea. Now, she is running attack ads against the President and his immigration policies in South Florida on TV less than 50 days before the midterm elections to suppress the Hispanic vote this November,” Loomer wrote.

“President Trump is not being advised well by some of the people who work for him. It’s been very disappointing to watch this unfold as someone who cares about the President and his success. To be honest, it is hard not to feel black pilled by so many of the incompetent people who work for the President. They go out of their way to sabotage, gatekeep and they seem to love giving access and endorsements to horrible candidates who hate the President and don’t even support his policies. They better hope Republicans show up this November or they will have made President Trump a lame duck President in his second term,” she continued.

“Vetting matters. I feel very sad about it. We worked so hard to help POTUS win in 2024 and so many people have squandered so much since January 2025 by not aggressively combatting saboteurs and Trump haters like Salazar,” she added.

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CBS News has more:

CBS News reported that July was the first month in Mr. Trump’s second term when people with only civil immigration violations — not pending criminal charges or convictions — made up more than half of those arrested. CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment on Salazar’s ad.

Born in Miami’s Little Havana, Salazar is the daughter of Cuban exiles. A former television journalist, Salazar has interviewed both Nicolás Maduro and Fidel Castro, according to her office.

In Congress, Salazar has advocated for immigration reform to bring undocumented workers “out of the shadows.” She has said that immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years, lack a criminal record and pay taxes should be able to achieve a renewable legal work status.

 

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