The Guardian ·
House Republican releases campaign ad critical of Trump’s immigration policies
María Elvira Salazar says some enforcement has ‘gone too far’ as GOP seeks distance from Trump before midterms
A Republican congresswoman has released a campaign ad criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement, in the latest sign that a key plank of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign has become a liability for his congressional allies ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Mr President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Florida’s María Elvira Salazar says in a 30-second ad. “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 represents a competitive Miami-area district that is nearly three-quarters Hispanic, and where Trump won by a 15-point margin two years ago after a campaign in which he promised to carry out “mass deportations”. While his administration has implied that those targeted would be undocumented immigrants who committed crimes in the United States, in reality, a substantial portion of the people arrested since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 have no criminal record.
