Florida Republican hammers Trump over deportations in scathing election ad: ‘Betrayed’
Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, has hammered President Donald Trump over his massive immigration crackdown in a scathing election ad.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar, who is running for re-election in a district that overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the 2024 election, said in an ad that stunned the internet Thursday.
“In July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record,” she said, citing data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy.”
CNN’s Abby Phillip called Salazar’s ad, “A true wow moment in today’s GOP politics” in an X post.
“Whoa! Republican incumbents are now straight up running AGAINST Trump,” Latino GOP political consultant Mike Madrid wrote.
Addressing Trump, the congresswoman said in her ad filmed outside the White House that “the same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
“You can be for immigration what [former President Abraham] Lincoln was for slavery and [former President Ronald] 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,” Salazar added.
“Trump won her district by nearly 15 points. Now she’s calling him out,” the group Republicans Against Trump wrote on X in reaction to the ad. “Even Republicans in safe districts are feeling the pressure as Trump’s approval hits historic lows.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
The president had a net approval rating of -18 percent in a new The Economist/YouGov poll. In that same poll, 52 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Trump's handling of immigration while 45 percent said they approved.
Trump’s margin in the 2024 election was even wider among Hispanic voters, specifically, in Salazar’s district.
“We estimate Trump won Hispanic voters in FL-27 by 33 points in 2024,” Election outlet VoteHub wrote on X. “Our 2026 forecast has Salazar winning them by 19 points, a 14-point shift left.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party accused Salazar of not being truthful about her support of ICE, noting that she voted to approve $70 billion in funding to the Homeland Security Department, ICE and Customs and Border Protection through the 2029 fiscal year.
“Don't fall for her lies. María Elvira Salazar has stood with ICE every step of the way,” the Democrats’ X account posted.
While Salazar is distancing herself from Trump’s immigration policies, the president’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan is praising ICE’s efforts.
"ICE is making a record number of arrests — historic number of arrests,” Homan told Fox News Wednesday night. “June — record arrests. July beat June. August blew both those months out of the water. And September is looking pretty damn good, too."
Homan claimed that the immigration crackdown will “make this country safer.”
“All of this is gonna give us stronger national security. And it sends a message to the whole world: There’s no open border here anymore,” Homan told host Laura Ingraham.
