Latin Republican legislators who approve President Donald Trump are dedicating a thin line between supporting their repression of immigration and trying to convince their immigrant components that they will not be trapped in the process.
The leadership of the Hispanic Conference of Congress sponsored by the Republican party advocated Trump’s election by focusing on his border security policies and deportation of violent criminals.
The representative Tony Gonzales, Republican of Texas, selected as president of the conference this week, supports the Trump immigration agenda, saying: “We have to end the illegality.” Gonzales has also said that he supports the massive deportation of “convicted criminal foreigners”, but not “his ‘grandmother’.”
At some point, all ChC members in leadership positions have expressed positions similar to Gonzales.
Trump promised to deport undocumented immigrants with a criminal record and carry out “the largest deportation program in the history of the United States.” To comply with that, Trump’s officials have said that no undocumented person is out of the limits.
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who opposes Trump, said that no one should have been under the “false illusion” that immigrants who have not committed a crime were going to be protected. “It’s absurd.”
The Trump administration has already finished a series of legal immigration programs that allowed recent migrants and immigrants to remain temporarily in the United States while looking Your constituents.
In Florida, balancing Trump support and immigrant residents
Perhaps the legislators who walk the best line when it comes to balancing their support for Trump and defending their immigrant components are the three Latin members of the southern Congress of Florida.
Trump cut a probation program of the Biden era for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in one of his first acts in office. It also implemented a new policy that expanded the “discretion of execution” powers of immigration officials, allowing them to avoid the regular immigration law and accelerate deportations.
The changes promoted the representative Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Fla., To send a letter to the Department of National Security that urges him to ensure that any of its affected components are granted the due process and is protected from deportation until Your cases are heard. and determined.
Those who arrived under the probation program “have no criminal record and have requested asylum through adequate legal channels,” Salazar wrote. “I think they should have the ability to see their applications to rectify their legal status.”
On January 28, the secretary of the DHS, Kristi Noem, finished the temporary protected state for about 600,000 Venezuelans. TPS protections are granted to immigrants in the United States who cannot return to their countries due to natural disasters or political agitation. To be eligible, applicants must approve criminal record verifications.
Noem said that the conditions in Venezuela had improved enough to finish the program, and added that the designation of TPS had been used to allow people who otherwise did not have an immigration route were established in the United States .
In southern Florida, where Trump achieved historical profits on election day and is now considered a republican strength, Venezuelans expressed feeling “beyond betraying” for the termination of TPS. Florida has the largest population of Venezuelan immigrants from any state.
When the terminations of TPS, Salazar and his companions Republican representatives of Florida were announced. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez responded with a joint statement that supports the president, saying: “President Trump has shown a firm and unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people” and pointed out “and pointed out” how some people, such as the train members From Aragua, our generosity have exploited and breached our laws, with connections both to the Maduro regime and organized crime. “
But Giménez and Díaz-Balart followed NOEM with letters on the “urgent situation”, imploring a “decision that individually provides a solution” that causes Venezuelans respectful of the law about to lose their TPS, pointing out that social conditions and social conditions and Policies in Venezuela, it has not really improved that significantly.
According to Madrid, Republican legislators “have to show some type of deference to their voters by writing a letter, but they don’t say:” I oppose politics. “They only express a concern about a letter, which in Washington is equivalent to a wink And an assent. “
Giménez and Díaz-Balart did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
In an email to NBC News, Daniel Jaciva, spokesman for Salazar’s office, said the congresswoman has not yet received an answer to her letter to DHS.
Salazar’s commitment to “a strong and safe border border is closely aligned with the president’s approach,” said Jativa, saying that Salazar supports Trump’s impulse for the Federal Electronic Verification Database (which determines the eligibility of employees to work), building “physical barriers” in the south of the south. Edge and improvement of “border technology” to take strong measures against crime.
When it comes to Asyl For Venezuelas, Jatuiva said.
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In writing for The New Yorker in November, Geraldo Eachero, Professor of History at Northwestern University and author of the book “The Hispanic Republican: the form of an American political identity, from Nixon to Trump”, argued that many of the party’s positions Republican immigrants are plagued by inconsistencies that sometimes may seem contradictory ideas.
Immigrants are seen as “criminals, and non -criminals; they are a dangerous threat to American families, workers and national identity, and make important contributions to the nation,” writes each.
But it is not just Latin Republicans who are walking through a fine immigration line; So are the Democrats.
Laken Riley’s law, the first bill that Trump promulgated law in his second term, allows the arrest and arrest of persons who are not legally in the country and have been accused of robbery, robbery, theft, robbery or robbery crimes that lead to death. or serious body lesions. The law does not require the person to be convicted of a crime.
The Chamber approved the bill in a vote of 263-156, with 46 Democrats to join all the Republicans in favor. The Senate approved him in a 64-35 vote, with 12 Democrats who broke with his party to support him.
Surveys have shown that Americans, including Latinos, have changed directly by supporting more application and more support for deportations, although Latinos more support the roads towards legalization for undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes.
When it comes to immigration, “nobody is going to win this debate, but someone will lose it,” Madrid said. “If the Republicans exaggerate their hand, then they will lose it,” he said, and added that while the Trump administration does not bring back the large -scale work immigration raids and the family separations that define their first term, Republicans can be able of maintaining part of the Latin support they obtained from voters in 2024.
The 2018 partial exams had the greatest Latin participation in history, and it was the most anti-trump Latin vote in history, according to Madrid. “That was a direct result of ice raids and repressions that were happening in 2017” under the first Trump administration.
