Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar has issued a forceful warning to President Trump, saying his administration’s expansive immigration crackdown could weaken the Republican Party’s support among Hispanic voters—a constituency that proved pivotal in the 2024 election.
Salazar (R-Fla.), a former longtime anchor at the Spanish-language network Telemundo, raised the issue with Trump after releasing a pointed campaign ad. In it, she argued that many of his Latino supporters feel betrayed and highlighted that roughly half of the 50,000 migrants detained in July had no criminal record.
“I think that some of his advisers are compromising his legacy, and I think it’s my duty not to attack — there are no attacks here,” Salazar said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“They’re just forewarning him and advising him, as a member of Congress from the South Florida area, that some of his advisers are just not presenting the whole picture.”
The Florida Republican stressed that officials must distinguish between “narco and the nanny and the gangster and the gardener” when enforcing immigration laws.
At the same time, Salazar credited Trump with achieving a historic breakthrough among Hispanic voters. Exit polls showed that Trump defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris among Hispanic and Latino men in the 2024 presidential race.
“It was a very good conversation,” Salazar said of her exchange with Trump. “I told him exactly what you just repeated. ‘Sir, you have this moment in history where you can keep the pot of gold that you brought to the GOP in 2024.’”
“‘No other president was able to convince the Hispanics to vote 55 points for a GOP president. Please preserve that fortune that you have brought to the party.’”
As a first-generation American and the daughter of Cuban refugees, Salazar said her objective is to “preserve the American values that are entrenched in the GOP.”
She also said the upcoming midterm elections carry major stakes, pointing to what she described as growing support for socialism in the United States.
Salazar also drew attention last month when she criticized Trump’s oil agreement with Venezuela. In a post on X, she objected to interim President Delcy Rodriguez remaining in power despite her connections to Nicolas Maduro.
She later deleted the post, replacing it with a message calling the agreement a “good deal” and offering a more cautiously phrased assessment of the political situation.
“Trump has forced the bad actors to create the platform for the good actors to come in,” Salazar said. “I do know that the United States is in the business of bringing liberty and democracy to our neighbors, and transition will occur. So Delcy is just a necessary evil for now to stabilize.”
