María Elvira Salazar

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., is facing a tightening re-election race in her heavily Hispanic Miami-area district and has picked up an endorsement from Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump ally who called her "Colombia's best friend in U.S. Congress." De la Espriella and his wife have previously donated nearly $90,000 to Salazar's campaigns. The endorsement follows Salazar's public break with President Trump last month over immigration enforcement, which she said had "gone too far," drawing Trump's public criticism and social media attacks. She also recently received an endorsement from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Salazar's district is more than 74% Hispanic and has swung sharply between parties in past presidential elections. She faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former television anchor, in a race that forecasters have shifted toward Democrats and that national Democratic campaign groups are now targeting for a potential flip. Rodriguez has focused his campaign on local economic concerns rather than foreign endorsements.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, a Miami Republican, is facing pushback after releasing a campaign ad filmed outside the White House urging President Trump to soften immigration enforcement, warning his policies are hurting the GOP's standing with Latino voters. Many voters in her heavily Hispanic, majority-immigrant district say their support for Trump remains firm even as their confidence in Salazar has slipped, with some accusing her of political self-preservation and poor timing rather than genuine conviction.

Salazar faces Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez, a fellow former TV anchor, in a district Trump won by nearly 15 points in 2024 but which analysts now describe as competitive. Trump publicly criticized Salazar's ad but stopped short of harsher attacks he's aimed at other GOP critics; Salazar later said she had a "fantastic" follow-up conversation with him. The district has been heavily affected by immigration enforcement, with many Venezuelan, Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan residents losing humanitarian parole and TPS protections. The Cook Political Report still rates the race "likely Republican," though Democrats point to a fundraising surge for Rodriguez.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) defended President Trump's decision to meet with Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, calling Rodríguez a "necessary evil" while the country awaits free and fair elections. Speaking on CBS News's "Face the Nation," Salazar said Trump has created a "new blueprint" for dealing with dictators and predicted a transition toward democracy in Venezuela.

Rodríguez, formerly Venezuela's vice president, became interim leader after a U.S. military operation captured President Nicolás Maduro in January on drug trafficking charges. She has criticized Trump over Maduro's capture but has cultivated an oil-export relationship with Washington, and Trump has praised her willingness to "make Venezuela great again." The administration removed her from a sanctions list in April. Salazar has also pressed the administration to distinguish political exiles from criminal deportation targets, citing the case of detained journalist Luis Galeano. Salazar faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez in Florida's 27th District this cycle.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) released a new campaign ad, filmed in D.C. and running in South Florida, accusing President Trump of going "too far" with immigration enforcement, warning that Hispanic voters who helped elect him in 2024 now "feel betrayed." Citing ICE data showing half of detainees had no criminal convictions or pending charges, she urged Trump to "be careful" about his advisers' guidance and compared his potential legacy to Lincoln's on slavery and Reagan's on communism. Salazar said she does not seek amnesty but a "dignified life" for immigrants, tying her message to her bipartisan Dignity Act (also called the DIGNIDAD Act), which would offer legal status to long-term undocumented immigrants without criminal records, updated with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) in July. The ad comes just seven weeks before her reelection contest in a Miami-Dade district Democrats hope to flip.

The rare intra-party rebuke comes amid GOP anxiety that aggressive enforcement, including a troubled Minneapolis surge tied to two deaths, could erode Republican gains with Hispanic voters ahead of the midterms. Salazar's district, roughly 74% Hispanic, swung sharply toward Trump in 2024, helping him flip Miami-Dade County red for the first time since the 1980s, after leaning far narrower in 2020, but polling now shows Latino support swinging back toward Democrats nationally. She faces Democrat Elliot Rodriguez, a fellow Cuban-American and former TV anchor, who dismissed her ad as political opportunism; the race has reportedly tightened. Trump has shown no sign of softening his enforcement approach despite the warning.

Miami Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar released a campaign ad criticizing President Trump's immigration enforcement, saying some efforts "have gone too far" and warning him to be wary of his advisers' counsel. The ad, filmed in Washington, cites ICE data claiming half of detainees have no criminal convictions or pending charges, pushing back on the administration's "worst of the worst" messaging. It comes seven weeks before Salazar faces re-election in Florida's 27th District, a Miami-Dade seat that is roughly 74% Hispanic and that Trump won with 57% of the vote in 2024, and which Democrats hope to flip.

Trump has repeatedly endorsed Salazar's re-election. Her Democratic challenger, former news anchor Elliot Rodriguez, called the ad political opportunism, noting her prior votes to fund ICE. Salazar has long pushed a bipartisan immigration overhaul, the Dignity Act, which has drawn little Republican support and accusations of amnesty advocacy. The ad's digital targeting reportedly excludes several coastal zip codes that favored Kamala Harris in 2024.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) publicly broke with President Donald Trump on immigration policy, saying in a new advertisement that some enforcement efforts have "gone too far." Salazar represents a heavily Hispanic South Florida district including Miami and has been an outspoken critic of mass deportations, having championed a bipartisan immigration reform bill this Congress.

The break signals ongoing friction within the Republican Party over immigration enforcement tactics as the 2026 midterm elections approach. Salazar's district includes many immigrant and Hispanic voters who could be affected by aggressive deportation policies, making her stance politically significant heading into her reelection campaign. Her comments highlight a broader divide among Republicans representing diverse, immigrant-heavy districts versus the administration's hardline enforcement approach, a tension likely to influence legislative debates and electoral dynamics in competitive House races.

Miami Herald readers this week raised concerns over Miami-Dade's "Better Bus Network" overhaul, which eliminated most bus routes serving North Miami, North Miami Beach, Biscayne Park and the Omni area, leaving only Route 9 in place. Residents say they now face walks of up to a mile to reach transit, even as roughly 1,000 new apartment units are under construction nearby, raising questions about how car-less residents will reach jobs, groceries and medical care.

The same letters section also featured reader reactions on unrelated topics, including a call for Congress to pass the Recycled Materials Attribution Act to standardize recycling claims as Miami-Dade landfills near capacity, criticism of federal deportation policy and immigration enforcement funding, debate over the definition of socialism, reactions to Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar's Vatican visit, praise for the Miami Herald's Epstein investigation coverage, and a proposal for genetic eligibility testing in women's professional basketball.

Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar briefly criticized then reversed her position on President Trump's newly announced oil agreement with Venezuela's interim government. She initially posted, then deleted, warnings that any deal with the "interim regime" would expire once Trump left office and that Venezuela had a history of seizing American investments. About an hour later, she posted a revised message calling the deal "a great deal" for both the U.S. and Venezuelan people, framing it as a way to counter China's discounted access to Venezuelan oil while still criticizing interim leader Delcy Rodríguez as "the wrong person" for the arrangement.

Trump announced Friday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth negotiated the deal with Rodríguez, giving private U.S. companies access to an estimated 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan reserves across 17 oil fields, with Venezuela citing potential investment and tax revenue gains. Rodríguez has led Venezuela since U.S. forces captured former President Nicolás Maduro in January.