The founder of Latinas for Trump is now denouncing President Trump.
Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia, whose organization played a key role in expanding Trump’s popularity among Latinos, thinks that the agenda that she rallied hundreds of people to vote for has gone too far in its indiscriminate crackdown on immigration.
“As the state senator who represents her district and the daughter of Cuban refugees, who are now just as American, if not more so than Stephen Miller, I am deeply disappointed by these actions. And I will not stand down,” Garcia wrote on X last weekend. “I want to put myself on record: ‘This is not what we voted for. I have always supported Trump, @realDonaldTrump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane. I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings—in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims—all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal. This undermines the sense of fairness and justice that the American people value.’”
Florida congresswoman and Trump supporter María Elvira Salazar felt similarly.
“I am fully aware, and heartbroken, about the uncertainty now gripping Florida’s 27th District because of the recent immigration actions of the Administration. Arrests in immigration courts, including people with I-220A and pending asylum cases, the termination of the CHNV program, which has left thousands exposed to deportation, and other similar measures, all jeopardize our duty to due process that every democracy must guarantee,” she wrote. “I remain clear in my position: anyone with a pending asylum case, status-adjustment petition, or similar claim deserves to go through the legal process.”
While Garcia and Salazar are certainly correct and courageous in their rebukes, this vicious immigration campaign does indeed seem to be what they voted for. Trump promised the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, and he’s trying his hardest to fulfill it, pushing to arrest 3,000 people a day. Now many of the Latinos who voted for him are recoiling at his agenda in action. Only time will tell how this development will impact both 2026 and the GOP’s long-term dream of a robust multiracial conservative coalition.