Trump’s deportation efforts find support among Latinos in South Florida

Miami – Hialea, a 95% Hispanic city, has appeared in recent city council meetings and opposed partnerships with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.

The Hialea police station was born overseas, with three out of four, and Coral Gables, mostly Cuban Hispanic, has signed agreements with US immigration and customs enforcement agencies with little visible pushback.

President Donald Trump’s doubling of immigrant arrests and promotions for deportation could have a disproportionate impact on South Florida, home to some of the nation’s largest communities of Cubans, Venezuelans and other Latin Americans. But the response to Trump’s crackdown here is far more sluggish than his first term, reflecting both a shift in Latino voters to the right and some beliefs that restrictive border measures are needed.

“We understand that most of us voted for him, so some people feel a bit betrayed,” said Frank Iron, a 41-year-old sales representative from Miami. “I feel like a lot of these people are making it very personal. It’s not personal. It means you have to understand that this is an open border for many years.”

The iron reflected Trump’s attack on former President Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s administration saw a record-breaking illegal boundary intersection before falling by the end of his term. Since Trump’s 2020 election was once critical, Iron says he now thought the president had the most action-packed beginning of the semester he’d ever seen.

Political change begins to stick

When Miami-Dade County ordered prison officials in 2017 to illegally suspect people in the United States, dozens of people lined up at public meetings to oppose the order, shouting “embarrassing to you.” Lawmakers, including former vice president Kamala Harris, then a California Senator, joined in a massive protest outside of local immigration detention facilities.

Currently, protests are split in Trump’s second term. However, there was also wider political change in South Florida and Latino communities.

Harris won more than half of Hispanic voters in the 2024 presidential election, but his support fell slightly from around six of the 10 Hispanic voters who won in 2020. About half of Latino men voted for Harris from around six of the 10 people who went to Biden.

According to the AP vote, seven in 10 Hispanic voters in Florida said they support reducing the number of immigrants who were sought asylum in the US when they arrived at the US border. It was in line with all Florida voters.

In 2024, Trump won not only Miami-Dade County, but also Central Florida County of Seminole and Osceola, which had many Venezuelans migrated and invaded Pennsylvania’s Puerto Rican area. He also overturned several South Texas border counties, which are democratic fortresses, for decades.

The first thing that tore Trump’s popularity in South Florida was his attitude towards the socialist government, which many exiles and their families escaped, and his focus was on promoting growth and lowering prices. But at a rally in Miami before announcing its third White House bid in November 2022, Trump said, contrary to some beliefs, Hispanics prefer to crack down on illegal immigration.

“When I talked about borders, do you know who its biggest fans were? “They knew more about borders than anyone else. They knew more about it. Everyone said, ‘Oh, he’s going to hurt himself and be Hispanic.” In fact, it turned out to be the exact opposite. ”

Barbara Canales, a 49-year-old certified nursing assistant living in Hialea, said her mother brought her with a visa as a Honduras girl and overestimated it. It took years to legalize their status and allow other families to be taken.

“That’s why I fully agree that you need to take illegal immigrants out of the United States. I’m sorry, but they should do that,” Canales said. “When you bring a visa, it’s a completely different story.”

Canales said that the Republican president signed immigrants into question his signature, but the previous Democratic administrations were willing to enforce immigration laws and deport those who built their lives to former US President Barack Obama.

“It’s the reality that if you’re breaking the rules here, you need to suffer from consequences,” Canales said.

Cuban exiles in Miami are split

Miami is particularly well known for its community of Cuban exiles who originally fled the government of Communist leader Fidel Castro. About two-thirds of Florida Cuban voters supported Trump in 2024, with about a third supporting Harris, according to the Associated Press Voting.

For a long time, Cubans have pride themselves on arriving here legally through several refugee-based programs, and Cold War era laws have made green cards easier than people in other countries.

After President Obama ended his “wet, dry feet” policy in 2017, after Cubans stepping into dry land automatically considered a legal arrival, the Cubans left for the US and discovered more obstacles.

It didn’t stop many people coming.

Between 2021 and 2022, the US government recorded the largest flight of Cuban exiles since nearly 125,000 Cubans came to the United States in six months since the Mariel Boat Lift in 1980.

“We’re all in favour of legal immigration. My parents, like many of your parents, are the product of legal immigration if you don’t do that directly,” said Mayor Esteban Bobo, Hialea, a powerful Trump ally on the recent city council, Ice Partnership.

Trump has gained support from new Cuban immigrants, including 85-year-old Louis Boulato, who arrived in 2015 (who obtained citizenship in 2022 and voted Trump’s first presidential vote in 2024). Boulato recently trusted the president and believed that Republicans could better handle immigration, the economy and foreign policy.

“I think the challenges going forward are huge, but he can solve all the problems,” Boulart said.

However, these policy changes mean that more recent arrivals have a tougher path to legal status than previous generations.

Julian Padron, 79, who said he was imprisoned in Cuba, arrived decades ago when President Jimmy Carter negotiated the release of Castro and hundreds of political prisoners to the United States. He said he felt strong about Trump and thought his actions were anti-ethnic.

He frequently visits Domino Park in Miami’s iconic Little Havana Caleocho. Many players sitting at the four-person table on a recent day were in support of Trump. Padron said he would normally hold his own thoughts to himself unless he asked for his opinion. A park employee first told Associated Press reporters that political questions were not allowed at the park to avoid discussion. However, when asked which directives prohibit it, the employee said he would discover it and then allowed him to continue the interview.

“They’re going to detain people,” Padron said, looking around the park. “Do they not know that people are still fleeing communism?”

Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press