MAGA rep delivers rare Trump rebuke

Donald Trump's presidency has been the subject of intense debate among conservative Latinos in Florida, which he carried by roughly 14 percent in 2024. Florida-based conservative strategist Ana Navarro, originally from Nicaragua, is very much in the Never Trump camp — attacking Trump relentlessly on CNN and "The View." But U.S. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and María Elvira Salazar are among Trump's Latina supporters in the Sunshine State.

Salazar, however, is now questioning Trump's draconian immigration policy.

In an article published on December 9, Tim Padgett — a reporter for South Florida's National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate WLRN-FM — explains, "The Trump Administration's new halt on immigration applications from countries including Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela has created alarm in South Florida — and a rare rebuke from a Miami congresswoman…. In a statement this week, Salazar calls the pause 'unfair' and 'un-American.'"

In an official statement, Salazar said, "The United States doesn't believe in collective punishment. We don't punish the innocent for the sins of the guilty. Freezing asylum, green card, and citizenship processes is not the answer. It punishes hardworking, law-abiding immigrants who followed every step of the legal process. That is unfair, un-American, and it goes against everything this country stands for."

Padgett notes that Salazar, a Cuban-American, "finds herself in a difficult spot ahead of next year's midterm elections."

"She needs to acknowledge that many Latinos in her Miami district are angry at President Trump's severe anti-immigration policies," Padgett reports, "but she nonetheless needs his support to pass the bipartisan immigration bill she co-sponsors, the Dignity Act, which would legalize millions of undocumented immigrants. At a town hall last week at Florida International University, sponsored by the nonprofit grassroots advocacy group 50501, Salazar expressed confidence President Trump will support and eventually sign her legislation."

Read Tim Padgett's full article for WLRN-FM at this link.