For years, María Elvira Salazar was one of the republican voices closest to donald trump among Hispanic voters. He defended him during the 2024 campaign and supported his immigration agendaalthough with a difference: while the magnate promised to toughen deportations, the Cuban-American congresswoman defended combining border control with a regularization path for certain immigrants. Now, that alliance is practically brokenwith criticism from the representative and increasingly stronger attacks from the president.
It all started last September 17, when unexpectedly Salazar accused the president of having gone “too far” with its immigration policy and warned him that He could be alienating the Hispanics who helped put him back in the White House.
This criticism has as a backdrop the legislative elections on November 3, where Republicans risk losing control of the Congressdue to the immigration policy promoted by Trump and because of the economic consequences of the war in Iran.
“President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. (…). The same Hispanics who helped you reach the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today”said the representative for Florida’s 27th district in a campaign ad she published on social media.
The congresswoman asked the president to reconsider his measures to guarantee migrants “a dignified life” in the United States. “It can be for immigration what (Abraham) Lincoln was for slavery and (Ronald) Reagan for communism. I’m not talking about giving them amnesty but giving them a dignified life in this promised land.”Salazar said.
Indeed, a shift among Hispanic voters could put the Republican majority in the election at risk. House of Representativesaccording to a September New York Times analysis based on Times/Siena polls.
Nearly 51,000 migrants were arrested in August by ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the highest number during the second Trump Administration.
Democrats lead Republicans 64% to 29% among Hispanics likely to vote for Congressa significant change from 2024, when Kamala Harris only had a seven-point lead over Trump among this electorate.
Florida appears as one of the key states due to its high Hispanic population. In District 27 Maria Elvira Salazar In 2024 there was a 15-point Republican advantage. Today the dispute is much closer.
“She won because of me”
United States President Donald Trump speaks from the White House on Saturday, September 26, 2026. (EFE/ Octavio Guzmán).
Trump responded to Salazar on September 18 and said that she won the previous elections thanks to him.
“I managed to get her elected. Without me, she would not have been elected. A few years ago she ran against someone who, it was thought, was impossible for her to lose. And then, when I gave my support to María, she ended up winning, causing the biggest surprise of the entire Congress in that legislature,” he assured.
The president affirmed that he continues to support her and said that he did not agree with what she said in the video.
“I have a very firm position. She obviously doesn’t feel the border issue as intensely, but I do, and I understand what she says. But I have a very firm position.”Trump said.
two days later Salazar assured that after his statements he had a “fantastic” conversation with Trump.
“It was a very good conversation. He was a gentleman, very courteous, very receptive,” said the congresswoman in an interview with CBS.
Salazar stated that he told the president “Sir, you have this historic moment in which you can keep the treasure that you brought to the Republican Party in 2024. No other president was able to convince Hispanics to vote 55 points for a Republican president. “Please keep that fortune that you have brought to the party.”.
But on Saturday trump He returned to the fray and intensified his annoyance with Salazar by sharing about 14 messages from other users on Truth Social, something that was reviewed by CNN.
“She is nothing more than a traitor. I am glad that Latino support has not wavered,” wrote one user in a post shared by Trump.
“He wants amnesty for people who illegally crossed our borders, defying our laws”said another user.
“So we need a NEW Republican to replace Salazar,” said another user whose message was shared by Trump.
María Elvira Salazar was born on November 1, 1961 in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. She is the daughter of Cuban exiles. He studied at the Deerborne School in Coral Gables and graduated from Miami Dade College. She has a degree in Communication from the University of Miami and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He worked for the main American television networks in Spanish: Telemundo, Univision, AmericaTeve, MegaTV and CNN en Español.
Supported Trump
US representative María Elvira Salazar speaks to the press during the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia, on June 21, 2026. (Photo by Vanexa Romero / AFP).
/ VANEXA ROMERO
Until before the crash, the relationship between Trump and Salazar was from political closeness and mutual supportespecially around the Hispanic vote.
Salazar publicly defended Trump during the 2024 campaign and presented his electoral advance among Hispanics as a sign that these voters were getting closer to the Republican Party.
In September 2024, Salazar wrote that “the Republican Party is the only party” that reflected the values of Hispanics and attributed the growing Latino support for Trump to that political shift.
After the elections, when trump won and increased his support among Latinos, Salazar once again defended him. On November 6, 2024, in an interview with PBS, she explained that part of the magnate’s message had connected with her community because, according to her, topics such as discussions about gender identity were foreign to many of her constituents.
Besides, This year Salazar received “full and unconditional endorsement” for his re-election, according to a report about his relationship with the president.
Regarding the immigration issue, Salazar supported greater border control and the deportation of immigrants who have committed crimesbut he also defended immigration reform that would allow a legal exit for other undocumented immigrants.
His main proposal was Dignity Actprepared together with the democrat Verónica Escobar. The project sought to combine border security with legal status mechanisms for certain immigrants who have been living and working in the United States for years.
In November 2024, immediately after Trump’s victory, PBS asked about Trump’s promise to make massive deportations from the first day of his new administration.
Salazar responded that the deportation should focus on who had committed crimesand added that millions of undocumented immigrants contributed to the US economy. He said that within the Republican Party he would be one of the voices in charge of establishing that distinction.
The Democratic candidate of Cuban origin Eliott Rodríguez speaks in an interview with EFE. (EFE/ Alberto Boal).
The Democrat Eliott Rodríguez is the rival of María Elvira Salazar for District 27 of Florida. Last week he was interviewed by the EFE agency and during the conversation he said that her criticism of Trump was due to the close electoral competition.
Rodriguez he stressed that Salazar she tries to distance herself from an immigration policy that she herself supported. He pointed her out to be “accomplice” of deportations because, he stated, voted to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For this reason, he considered it contradictory that he now says that Trump’s measures have gone “too far.”
As for competition, a recent survey of Tulchin Research, cited by EFE, places Salazar with 47% voting intention and Rodríguez with 46%a difference of just one point.
