Representative María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican who recently drew the ire of some MAGA supporters after accusing President Donald Trump's administration of going too far on immigration enforcement, doubled down on those concerns Sunday and said some of the president's advisers are "compromising his legacy." Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Salazar defended a campaign ad released last week in which she warned Trump that some immigration policies had alienated Hispanic voters who helped return him to the White House in 2024. The congresswoman said she had personally delivered that message to the president during a recent conversation. "It was a very good conversation.
He was a gentleman, very courteous, very receptive," Salazar said. She said she told Trump the same thing she said in her campaign ad: that Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024 feel "betrayed" by some of the administration's immigration enforcement efforts. She added that she told him, "'Sir, you have this moment in history where you can keep the pot of gold that you brought to the GOP in 2024.'" Salazar, who represents Florida's 27th Congressional District in the Miami area, added that she urged Trump not to "squander" support he has won among Hispanic voters.
"'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,'" she said, referring to Trump's gains among Hispanic voters in 2024. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Sunday.
The remarks closely echoed those in a campaign advertisement released Thursday, in which Salazar warned that some of the administration's immigration enforcement efforts had "gone too far" and said Hispanic voters "feel betrayed." The ad marked one of the sharpest public criticisms of Trump's immigration policies from a sitting Republican member of Congress. On Sunday, Salazar again argued Americans distinguish between violent offenders and immigrants who have built lives in the country. "The average American understands the difference between the narco and the nanny and the gangster and the gardener," she said.
She also suggested Trump is capable of pursuing broader immigration reform. "He had said it over the last two years that there are good people picking up the jalapeno peppers, working in agricultural, construction, hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing," Salazar said. "He is a construction and hospitality guy.
He gets it more than anybody." Salazar argued the president has a unique opportunity to resolve what she described as a decades-long immigration problem. "I told him during our conversation, you could fix this mess that has been happening for 40 years. He's the only person who can do it because he gets it.
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