Latino Republican lawmakers are warning that the GOP could lose the midterms as Hispanics flee over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
A trio of Florida Republicans have piped up since Tuesday, with one state lawmaker calling out Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, even tussling on X with his wife, Katie Miller.
‘I do think that he will lose the midterms because of Stephen Miller,’ state Senator Ileana Garcia, who stands to lose reelection in her swing district, told the New York Times in an interview Tuesday.
She later claimed on X that her criticism of Miller – an architect of the mass deportation policy – had gotten her ‘doxxed.’
‘Why have we become everything we’ve criticized? I’m not afraid of you, Stephen Miller,’ Garcia said.
Representatives Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar haven’t called for Miller or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s head, but did warn the party was in political hot water.
‘I warned about this months ago, before the headlines caught up. Today we are watching it unfold in real time,’ Salazar posted to X Tuesday night. ‘Hispanics are leaving the GOP in large numbers, and pretending otherwise won’t fix it.’
She implored her party to ‘reverse course and act now.’
Florida state Senator Ileana Garcia (left) whacked around White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller (right) for his role in crafting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, placing blame on the immigration hardliner for the GOP potentially losing the midterms
Gimenez didn’t specifically cite concerns about losing Latino voters when speaking to Newsmax Tuesday, but did say he was worried about the November races, which historically could turn the House of Representatives over to the Democrats.
Gimenez said he’s expressed to the Trump administration, ‘there has to be a better way to do this.’
‘And also, this is politically, it’s hurting our chances at the midterm. And I’m just being frank about it,’ Gimenez said.
Trump made huge gains with Latino voters in the 2024 race.
He lost them by 38 points in 2016 to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Eight years later, Trump lost Latinos by just three points to the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris – and won Latino men.
But during the 2025 off-year elections, Latino voters headed back to the Democratic column in droves, helping elect Democratic governors in both Virginia and New Jersey.
Salazar first spoke out then.
Representatives Maria Elvia Salazar (left) and Carlos Gimenez (right) voiced concerns about how President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement could impact the Republicans’ ability to hang on to their House majority in the 2026 midterm elections
‘I’ve said it before, the Hispanic vote is not guaranteed,’ she said in a video post on November 5, the day after the election. ‘Hispanics married President Trump, they’re only dating the GOP.’
She said that while Latino voters wanted to get rid of the ‘bad Hombres,’ they also wanted to ‘give dignity to those who have been here for years, and do not have a criminal record, people that may not have a legality, but who have been here contributing to the economy and to the country.’
Things on the immigration front have only gotten more heated since then, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents descending on Minneapolis, killing two American citizens and detaining a 5-year-old child.
In the latest Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll, which was conducted Monday, 51 percent of Latino voters said they disapproved of the Trump administration’s record on immigration – higher than the 44 percent of white voters who held the same sentiment.
Fifty-eight percent of Latino voters disapproved of ICE specifically, compared to 50 percent of white registered voters.
And 57 percent of Latino voters said they believed that ICE should pull out of U.S. cities, with 50 percent of white voters in agreement.
Another 48 percent of Latino voters said that Noem should be fired, and 49 percent said she should be impeached by Congress.
Pollsters did not ask about the fate of Miller, an immigration hardliner who worked for Trump during his first administration as well.
However, one sliver of good news for Trump is that his numbers haven’t cratered with Latinos despite strong feelings on immigration enforcement.
He’s currently holding at 42 percent approval, 58 percent disapproval with the important voting bloc.
‘Trump’s numbers with Hispanics are actually holding up relatively well,’ J.L. Partners pollster James Johnson told the Daily Mail.
The only problem for November – Trump won’t be on the ballot.
