MIAMI (AP) — Dozens of women gathered at the gorgeous Miami Brewery on a recent night to hear Rep. Mario Dias Barrato and outline the Republican plan to maintain a majority of the slim home in next year’s election.
In the hour-long statement, Diaz Barato did not raise immigrants himself.
Diaz Barato is one of three House Republicans from South Florida with Cuban roots. Together, they are cautious in discussing President Donald Trump’s immigration attacks, including direct targeting several Cubans and Venezuelans, a key part of the Florida GOP base.
Democrats are targeting at least one of these lawmakers and are focusing on Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s district as a house sheet that could potentially turn them over next year.
Miami Democrats posted a sign showing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a three-person House member and former Cuban Florida Senator, and Secretary Marco Rubio, three-person House member, labeled “traitor.”
Rep. Diaz Barato, Salazar and Carlos Guimenez have defended Trump despite the president’s efforts to eliminate protections that allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Cubans and other immigrants to live and work legally in the United States.
Last November, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade County, the Metropolitan area since 1988, with the highest percentage of immigrants in the country. Republicans believe that the right-wing shift for Latinos shows support for tougher border restrictions and massive deportation, but Democrats believe that such measures could backfire these lawmakers if these restrictions get too close to their homes.
One of the few questions Diaz Barato has partnered with during her recent visit with Republican women and after not mentioning immigration, it was about temporary protections for Venezuelans that Trump is trying to end. Diaz Balato justified Trump’s actions, saying the president is “doing exactly what he said he was trying to do.”
“I have a lot of friends in this situation. There’s no way to adjust,” said Milena Mitraud, the lawyer who asked the question.
Let’s take a closer look at the three lawmakers.
Maria Elvira Salazar
Salazar, 63, is perhaps the most vocal of the three, saying Trump should not rule out some of the popular immigration protections among Miami residents, defending Cubans and several Venezuelans in particular. A federal judge recently stepped in to stop the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. After the judge’s ruling, Salazar gave Trump the credibility that he was “doing the right thing.”
Salazar denounced Democratic President Joe Biden for creating a system in which Cubans would no longer be allowed to apply for legal residence a year after they arrived in the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act. She said she put pressure on the new administration to stop arresting Cubans permitted under the system, and intervened and secured the release of nursing students.
She claimed in a video she posted to X in Spanish only, she was driving immigration change (a dislike for many Republican bases nationwide).
“We are the only person in the council who is helping you,” she said. “We are trying to make the garbage paper we gave them so that the Biden administration can benefit from the Cuban adjustment laws once they receive parole.”
The former broadcaster recently agreed to Univision’s anchor that she is the “only Republican” trying to tackle immigration change. She spoke about the “new dawn” saying that Trump was just as effective on immigrants as Republican President Ronald Reagan was fighting the Soviet threat.
“Things are changing,” she said. “President Trump said these offences, which are criminals, should leave, and I agree. They should be kicked out. But the women who are cleaning here are 10, 15, 20 years, or those who pick tomatoes, or those who are picking oranges, or those who are peeling potatoes at a restaurant in New York, we must give them dignity.”
Salazar defended immigration records in response to a letter from a Cuban-American healthcare businessman in the newspaper in his opinion column in the Miami Herald. Former GOP political donors accused Salazar, Diaz Barato, Gimenez and Rubio of “co-infidelity and co-illness” in which Trump faced “cruelty towards immigration.”
“I am not part of a letter calling for omission. I am on the battlefield of Congress, taking political risks and willing to lead the charges,” she wrote.
Mario Diaz Ballat
Diaz Barato, 63, joined Salazar and Gimenez and issued a joint statement after Homeland Security Secretary Christi Noem announced he had revoked deportation protections for Venezuelans. Lawmakers said they are in solidarity with Venezuelans who could be persecuted or oppressed if they were deported to their home country.
“The people of Venezuela have endured oppression, corruption and human rights abuses for too long in Venezuela, but it is not safe for many to return,” the joint statement said.
However, the dean of the Florida Legislature delegation has largely defended Trump’s actions, denounced Biden, bringing a record number of immigrants into the United States, and claiming that many immigrants who arrived during the Biden administration are criminals. Research shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, but some U.S. immigrants have been illegally convicted in recent murders that they notoriously made during the campaign.
When meeting a Republican woman in Miami this month, Diaz Barato informed that he was working with the administration to create a “process” to screen people from countries that are likely to file legitimate lawsuits for asylum. He said while working on it, they had already been here and asked to allow people to remain in the country who are not a threat to their people. However, he was still critical of those arriving illegally.
Carlos Guimenez
Gimenez, 71, a former mayor of Miami-Dade County, defended Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration while expressing solidarity with Venezuelans who are subject to temporary legal protections.
However, the Cuban-born lawmaker is one step further towards halting all trips to Cuba, suggesting that he cut off remittances. It affects many people who have recently arrived than they have relatives who live on the island.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent, Gimenez said there could be limited exceptions approved by the State Department.
“The murderous dictatorship in Cuba is on life support,” he said in the letter. “The administration can’t even grab the light, and America needs to stand with the Cuban people and take down this pathetic gang for good.”
In a statement, Gimenez spokesman Roberto Lugons said lawmakers believe these actions will eliminate the revenue streams of Cuba and “support the brave Cuban people in search of freedom.” Regarding immigration protection, Gimenez hopes that cases will be determined individually.
“Rep. Jimenez supports a case-by-case solution for asylum seekers with legitimate political asylum claims that have fallen into the scope of immigration due to Joe Biden’s inconsistent, reckless, open border policy,” the statement said.
