Republican highlights man freed from ICE custody in campaign ad

Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) released a campaign advertisement featuring a man she helped get released Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, along with his wife — who described the U.S.’s immigration system as “broken.”

The ad, which first aired last week , shows an interview with a Weslaco, Texas, woman whose husband — a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient — was detained by ICE.

The interviewee, named Stephanie, said he was freed after she reached out to De La Cruz — Texas’s 15th Congressional District incumbent locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Bobby Pulido.

“My husband and I did things the right way, but we were stuck in a broken immigration system,” Stephanie said. “We need to secure our borders to keep our families safe, but this immigration system is broken. So, we reached out to Monica De La Cruz.”

“She helped with my husband’s immigration case. I’ve voted Democrat before, but Monica puts people over politics,” the woman continued.

De La Cruz is not the first Latina Republican to break with President Trump on immigration. On Thursday, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) — running for reelection in Florida’s 27th Congressional District — released her own campaign video accusing the president of going “too far” with his escalated immigration enforcement operations.

“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” Salazar said.

Both Salazar and De La Cruz represent predominately Hispanic districts , according to census data.

Stephanie’s husband is not the first person the Texas Republican has gotten out of ICE custody. In March, she escorted Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, a teenager detained for nearly two weeks, out of an immigration detention facility to his loved ones.

“This is about our community coming together for, not only their family, but other families who are in similar situations,” De La Cruz said at the time, adding that her colleagues in Congress should work on “common sense” enforcement policies, The Texas Tribune reported .

De La Cruz faces a fierce challenge from Pulido, who gained traction within the 15th District.

An August poll from Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center reported that De La Cruz trailed Pulido by 5 points .

Cook Political Report’s July 16 update stated that “under normal circumstances, a district Trump carried by 18 points should not be competitive. But due to a number of unique factors” De La Cruz “faces a serious challenge from” Pulido.

De La Cruz has ramped up campaign efforts as November approaches, both through releasing this ad and giving a speech at Trump’s Republican National Committee midterm convention.

But De La Cruz still praised Trump for his handling of the U.S. southern border, saying in her ad , “Working with President Trump, we ended the border crisis, and today that border is safer than any point in history.”