A South Florida Republican is urging President Donald Trump to spare hundreds of thousands of people from Latin America and the Caribbean from his immigration crackdown.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar called on the Department of Homeland Security in a letter Friday not to remove people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who were allowed to enter the U.S. by President Joe Biden’s administration under a humanitarian parole program.
“Although President Biden originally created this program on dubious legal grounds and brought individuals here without a plan for their future, they were still enrolled under programs offered to them. Therefore, I believe they should have the ability to see their applications out to rectify their legal status,” Salazar wrote.
Salazar is a Trump ally but the politics of her position make sense. Salazar’s district is majority Hispanic and is home to many people who either came to the country as refugees from Cuba and Venezuela or are descended from people who did.
Trump has pledged to deport millions of noncitizens and said he intends to end the humanitarian programs set up by Biden to ease the migrant crisis at the border. The new administration’s efforts appear to be well underway, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement reporting that it made 593 arrests on Friday.
