Latino Republican lawmakers who approve of President Donald Trump are toeing a fine line between supporting his immigration crackdown and trying to convince their immigrant constituents that they won’t get caught up in the process.
The leadership of the GOP-sponsored Congressional Hispanic Conference advocated for Trump’s election by focusing on his border security policies and the deportation of violent criminals.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, selected as the conference’s chairman this week, supports Trump’s immigration agenda, saying “we have to end the lawlessness.” Gonzales has also said he supports the mass deportation of “convicted criminal aliens,” but not “your ‘abuelita.’”
At some point, all of the CHC members in leadership positions have expressed similar stances to Gonzales.
Trump promised to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records and carry out “the largest deportation program in American history.” To fulfill that, Trump officials have said no undocumented person is off limits.
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who opposes Trump, said no one should have been under the “false illusion” that immigrants who have not committed a crime were going to be protected. “It is absurd.”
The Trump administration has already terminated a number of legal immigration programs that allowed recent migrants and immigrants to remain in the United States temporarily as they sought asylum or adjusted their status — leading Latino Republican lawmakers to acknowledge the threats facing some of their constituents.
In Florida, balancing support for Trump and for immigrant residents
Perhaps the lawmakers walking the finest line when it comes to balancing their support of Trump and defending their immigrant constituents are the three Latino members of Congress from South Florida.
Trump slashed a Biden-era parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in one of his first acts in office. He also implemented a new policy expanding immigration officials’ “enforcement discretion” powers, allowing them to bypass regular immigration law and speed up deportations.
The changes prompted Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., to send a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging it to ensure that any of her constituents who are affected are afforded due process and are protected from deportation until their cases are heard and decided.
Those who arrived under the parole program “have no criminal record, and have applied for asylum through the proper legal channels,” Salazar wrote. “I believe they should have the ability to see their applications out to rectify their legal status.”
On Jan. 28, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem terminated Temporary Protected Status for about 600,000 Venezuelans. TPS protections are granted to immigrants in the U.S. who can’t return to their countries because of natural disasters or political upheaval. To be eligible, applicants must pass criminal background checks.
Noem said conditions in Venezuela had improved enough to end the program, adding that the TPS designation had been used to allow people who otherwise didn’t have an immigration pathway to settle in the U.S.
In South Florida, where Trump made historic gains on Election Day and is now considered a Republican stronghold, Venezuelans expressed feeling “beyond betrayed” by the TPS termination. Florida has the largest population of Venezuelan immigrants of any state.
When the TPS terminations were announced, Salazar and fellow Florida Republican Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez responded with a joint statement supporting the president, saying, “President Trump has shown steadfast and unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people” and pointed out “how some individuals, such as members of the Tren de Aragua, have exploited our generosity and flouted our laws, with connections to both the Maduro regime and organized crime.”
But Gimenez and Díaz-Balart followed up with letters to Noem about the “urgent situation,” imploring her for a “decision that individually provides a solution” that spares law-abiding Venezuelans about to lose their TPS, pointing out that social and political conditions in Venezuela have not actually improved that significantly.
According to Madrid, the Republican legislators “have to show some sort of deference to their constituents by writing a letter — but they’re not coming out saying, ‘I oppose the policy.’ They’re just expressing a concern on a letter, which in Washington is equivalent to a wink and a nod.”
Gimenez and Díaz-Balart did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In an email to NBC News, Daniel Jativa, a spokesperson for Salazar’s office, said the congresswoman has not yet received a response to her letter to DHS.
Salazar’s commitment to “a strong and secure border aligns closely with the President’s approach,” Jativa said, saying Salazar supports Trump’s push for the federal e-Verify database (which determines employees’ eligibility to work), building “physical barriers” at the Southern border and enhancing “border technology” to crack down on crime.
When it comes to asylum and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, Salazar has introduced bills and communicated to Trump that she prioritizes preserving protections for Cuban migrants awaiting to adjust their legal status and TPS for Venezuelans, Jativa said.
Navigating different messages
In writing for The New Yorker in November, Geraldo Cadava, a history professor at Northwestern University and author of the book “The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, From Nixon to Trump,” argued that many of the GOP’s positions on immigrants are riddled with inconsistencies that can, at times, come across as contradictory ideas.
Immigrants are viewed as “criminals, and not criminals; they’re a dangerous threat to American families, workers, and national identity, and they make important contributions to the nation,” Cadava writes.
But it’s not just Latino Republicans who are walking a fine line on immigration; so are Democrats.
The Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump signed into law in his second term, allows for the arrest and detention of people who are not legally in the country and have been charged with burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting or crimes that lead to death or serious bodily injury. The law does not require that the person be convicted of a crime.
The House approved the bill in a 263-156 vote — with 46 Democrats joining all Republicans in favor. The Senate passed it in a 64-35 vote, with 12 Democrats breaking with their party to back it.
Polls have shown that Americans — including Latinos — have shifted right on supporting more enforcement and more support for deportations, though Latinos are more supportive of pathways to legalization for undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes.
When it comes to immigration, “no one is going to win this debate, but someone is going to lose it,” Madrid said. “If the Republicans do overplay their hand, then they will lose it,” he said, adding that as long as the Trump administration does not bring back the large-scale workplace immigration raids and family separations that defined his first term, Republicans may be able to keep some of the Latino support they gained from voters in 2024.
The 2018 midterms had the highest Latino turnout in history, and it was the most anti-Trump Latino vote in history, according to Madrid. “That was a direct result of the ICE raids and the crackdowns that were going on in 2017” under the first Trump administration.
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