MIAMI — Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) launched her first 2026 general-election ad Thursday with a direct warning to President Donald Trump that some immigration enforcement “has gone too far” and that Hispanics who helped elect him in 2024 “feel betrayed,” according to her campaign and coverage by CBS News and CNN.

The spot, recorded outside the White House and released in English and Spanish, begins airing across broadcast, digital and OTT throughout South Florida, Salazar for Congress said in a Sept. 17 release. It is the first of several ads planned before November. Salazar represents Florida’s 27th District in Miami-Dade, a Republican-leaning seat that is nearly three-quarters Hispanic by Census figures cited by CBS.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the ad. “The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.” She also urges Trump to “be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy,” CBS and CNN reported.

In the ad, Salazar cites a campaign claim that about 50% of the roughly 50,000 people detained in July had no criminal record — a figure she presents as ICE detention data. Outlets treating the line carefully attribute it to the campaign/ad rather than as independently verified agency statistics; CBS noted separately that July was the first month of Trump’s second term in which people with only civil immigration violations — not pending criminal charges or convictions — made up more than half of those arrested, per CBS News reporting. CNN likewise framed the 50% line as a statistic Salazar said shows detainees without criminal records.

Salazar insists she is not pitching amnesty. “I’m not talking about giving them amnesty. I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land,” she says in the ad, tying the message to her long-running Dignity Act framing of tougher border enforcement paired with status pathways for qualifying undocumented residents already in the United States, her campaign said.

The break lands weeks before the midterms as Republicans worry about Latino voters who backed Trump in 2024. Salazar faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former CBS News Miami anchor, CBS reported. CNN and CBS both said they had sought White House comment.

Dated Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026: first general-election ad airing South Florida in English and Spanish; direct appeal to Trump on enforcement scope; July detainee criminal-record claim attributed to campaign/ad; Dignity Act / no-amnesty framing.

Sources