Florida Republican breaks with Trump on immigration in campaign ad: Latino voters ‘feel betrayed’

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) accused President Trump of going “too far” with federal immigration enforcement operations in a campaign advertisement released Thursday.

“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” said Salazar, who’s running for reelection in November, in the new clip .

“You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism,” the Republican continued. “I’m not talking about giving them amnesty. I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.”

The ad, which will run on TV and online in South Florida, is one of the first of several new political ads the Republican’s campaign team plans to share ahead of the midterms, according to a Thursday press release .

The comment marks a notable break from a Trump-endorsed Republican amid her reelection bid in Florida. Decision Desk HQ, The Hill’s nonpartisan election forecasting partner, previously shifted its rating in this race from “solidly Republican” to “likely Republican.”

The president backed Salazar in a February Truth Social post, praising the former news anchor’s “Wisdom and Courage” in confronting “the Corrupt Fake News.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Salazar is running against Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez in the state’s 27th Congressional District, a seat she was first elected to in 2020. The district, which includes parts of Miami, is home to one of the highest foreign-born populations of any House district.

On Monday, Salazar spoke out following reports that immigration agents had detained Luis Galeano, an exiled Venezuelan journalist, in Miami.

The Venezuelan government stripped Galeano’s citizenship due to his criticism of the regime, and his U.S. asylum application has been pending for seven years.

“I have been clear with the Administration: enforce the law and deport dangerous individuals, but do not treat political exiles like criminals,” Salazar said in a statement shared on social media. “We are still learning the details of his detention, but his case must be reviewed immediately and with the full weight of what he has already endured.”

Last year, Salazar introduced the Dignity Act , a bipartisan immigration bill that has divided House Republicans. The legislation would allow migrants who arrived in the country without proper documentation before 2021 and do not have criminal records to gain new legal status if they pay $7,000 in restitution as well as any owed back taxes.

Salazar has emphasized the bill would not provide this population with a path to citizenship, saying it is not “amnesty.”

Rodriguez, the son of Cuban immigrants, has also criticized the Trump administration over its immigration enforcement operations, and he referenced his familial background in similar attack ads against Trump.

“This community is built by hard-working immigrants just like them,” Rodriguez said in a January campaign ad . “Yes, secure borders matter, but so does due process and our constitution. When our leaders stay silent as these rights are trampled on, that silence is not leadership.”