By Sabrina Rodriguez | Photography by Greg Kahn for WSJ

WASHINGTON -- Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R., Fla.) is warning President Trump that his administration's hard-line deportation policies are putting the GOP's House majority at risk in the midterm elections, marking a rare intraparty split over one of the president's core priorities.

"We cannot conflate the gangster with the gardener, or the nanny with the narco, or the construction worker with the coyote," Salazar said in an interview. The result of Trump's heavy-handed approach to deportations has left some Hispanics alienated from the party, Salazar said.

"So now we have to course correct and send the right message that the Hispanics are welcomed once again in the GOP," she added.

Salazar, who represents one of the most Hispanic districts in the U.S., is one of the few Republicans publicly saying the Trump administration is mishandling immigration by focusing on an aggressive mass-deportation agenda that goes beyond sending back criminals. She is seeing the fallout of Trump's crackdown play out in her own district, which Democrats are targeting in the midterms. And she is urging Trump to pivot -- or else it could cost Republicans with Hispanic voters.

Salazar, a Cuban-American born in Miami, has long pursued bipartisan immigration changes that include a pathway to a form of legal status for some immigrants who entered or are living in the U.S. illegally. Her stance has garnered critics on the left and the right.

Her push on the issue has angered MAGA influencers who say she is out of step with the president's base -- and some have gone so far as to say she should be deported.

Meanwhile, her liberal critics slam her for standing by Trump, whose administration is following through on his campaign promise to carry out the largest mass-deportation operation in U.S. history. They say she has made herself vulnerable to a Democratic challenger in November.

Salazar's criticism, though often measured, is notable in a party that rarely sees lawmakers push back on the president. In the past, Republicans could dismiss someone like Salazar as an outlier. But the GOP majority in the House is so thin that her party can't afford to ostracize her, giving her enormous pull. And her warning comes as recent polls show Trump is losing ground on immigration -- his signature issue and one he successfully campaigned on in 2024.

The former Spanish-language broadcast journalist has long been a supporter of Trump's and continues to be. Last week, she welcomed Trump's Truth Social post endorsing her re-election bid. Even in her criticism of his handling of immigration, she often focuses on the opportunity before him. She speaks passionately about her belief that Trump -- whose administration has stripped more than 1.5 million immigrants of their legal status, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute -- will change his mind and embrace a form of legal status for millions.

"President Trump, This book was written for you," she wrote in her recently released book "Dignity Not Citizenship." "You could be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for Communism. May the Lord Almighty give you the divine wisdom to understand it."

Central to her pitch to Trump is that he could burnish his legacy by embracing her bipartisan bill, the Dignity Act. The bill, which she has championed with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D., Texas) and has 37 other co-sponsors, has garnered support from some business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. It would create a path to legal status for workers who meet certain requirements, and make changes to the border-enforcement process, among other things. Some of the requirements include being present in the U.S. before 2021, passing a criminal-background check, paying back any taxes owed and a $7,000 fine.

Salazar, who introduced the bill for a second time in 2025, calls it a middle-ground solution.

"One side says: Why don't we just deport them all.... And then there is this other side that says, 'Let's give them a path to citizenship.' " said Salazar, 64 years old. "Both positions are unattainable at this hour in 2026."

The legislation has been met with staunch opposition from some conservatives, such as MAGA influencer and Trump confidante Laura Loomer and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Conservative critics say the bill amounts to amnesty for immigrants without legal status, even though the bill doesn't include a pathway to citizenship.

"Salazar represents a retreat position that is de facto amnesty. Anytime illegals are allowed to remain indefinitely in our land, we vaporize our borders," said Steve Cortes, a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign adviser, adding that she doesn't represent "the overwhelming masses of GOP voters."

Salazar writes off much of the criticism as a lack of understanding on how detrimental mass deportations would be to the agriculture, hospitality and construction industries. And she is convinced that Trump could get her conservative critics on board -- if he himself comes around.

"It takes someone with a very big vision, with very big political pants...to be able to go against the headwinds and say, 'This is what's good for the country. No MAGA, this isn't amnesty. This is dignity,' " she said.

Salazar didn't say whether she has spoken directly to Trump about her concerns and her vision, but she said she has had "very deep conversations with very important people" and the "White House understands that they need to look at immigration right now."

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump was fulfilling his campaign promises on immigration, and that "anyone in the country illegally is eligible to be deported."

Democrats are targeting Salazar's seat this year, part of the party's effort to focus on districts with high numbers of Hispanics. House Democrats' campaign arm said last year that they were aiming to flip her seat, and local Democrats are feeling optimistic about their prospects as recently retired CBS Miami news anchor Eliot Rodriguez is considering running against Salazar. But it would be a tough race in the red-trending district: Salazar won re-election in 2024 by almost 21 percentage points after flipping her district in 2020 by fewer than 3 points. In 2018, she lost her first bid.

Trump's win in 2024 was in part buoyed by his gains with Hispanic voters across the U.S., but polls show much of those gains have dwindled.

Sitting in her Capitol Hill office, Salazar reflected on the diversity of her district. On display in the office is a poster that shows the demographic breakdown of her constituents: More than 73% hail from 25 different countries. Almost 40% are of Cuban descent, followed by Nicaragua, Colombia and Venezuela.

In South Florida, Salazar is also one of three Republican lawmakers being targeted in attack ads funded by billionaire philanthropist and fellow Cuban-American Mike Fernández. Last year, billboards and digital ads began to pop up with the message "deporting immigrants is cruel," alongside Salazar and her Cuban-American Republican colleagues Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez. Fernández has said he is spending millions on the ads to raise public consciousness on Trump's actions and in hopes of ousting at least one of the three South Florida GOP lawmakers.

Díaz-Balart, an ally of Salazar's who represents her neighboring district, praised Salazar for her efforts to get the GOP to embrace immigration changes. "What I think is really admirable is the fact that she's willing to stand up and take risks," he said.

Salazar said she isn't worried about her race, but Trump's aggressive immigration tactics could cost some of her colleagues their seats in less favorable districts.

"I am very concerned and very upset because this should have not happened," she said, adding that Trump had gone beyond his campaign pledge to target the "bad hombres."

"But now he can change that course," she said.

Write to Sabrina Rodriguez at sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2026 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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