Politics
Record Deportations Come With Political Costs for South Florida Republicans
The Trump administration says it deported more than 483,000 people in fiscal year 2026, the highest in DHS history, but several South Florida Republicans say the aggressive enforcement alienated Hispanic voters and nearly cost them their seats.
The Department of Homeland Security says the Trump administration deported more than 483,000 people in fiscal year 2026 and made roughly half a million immigration arrests, a figure the agency calls the highest in its history and more than eight times the number recorded in fiscal year 2021, the first year of the Biden administration.
But the enforcement record is colliding with political reality in South Florida, where several Republican incumbents faced unexpectedly close races in the midterm elections and are now openly acknowledging that the crackdown cost them support.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican representing Florida's 28th Congressional District, told Fox News that immigration enforcement played a role with Hispanic voters. "We have a large number of Hispanics here that they did not like the immigration enforcement," Gimenez said.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, whose 26th Congressional District has long been considered safely Republican, narrowly won reelection. He told NBC6's Jackie Nespral that he and some colleagues had warned the administration before the election. "I and some of my colleagues kept telling the administration, not only is it a big mistake politically, but more importantly, it's bad policy," Diaz-Balart said.
The concerns surfaced before Election Day as well. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar publicly broke with the administration over its immigration approach in a campaign ad, saying, "Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far." Salazar ultimately defeated Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez by a margin narrow enough to trigger a recount.
President Donald Trump has also acknowledged the political fallout. In an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," he conceded that his immigration policies were "too tough" and that mass deportations hurt him during the midterms. "I think it might be too tough, yeah," Trump said, adding that he would be open to working with Democrats on the issue. "I'd love to do something on immigration," he said, while setting a limit: "No amnesty, no anything."
Whether the administration adjusts course remains an open question. Trump recently appointed Stephen Miller, a central architect of his hardline immigration agenda, as White House chief of staff, a move that adds uncertainty over whether the administration will pursue a bipartisan immigration agreement or largely continue the enforcement policies that defined its approach during the election year.
For South Florida, a region with deep immigrant roots and a large Hispanic electorate, the debate carries particular weight. The administration is celebrating record enforcement numbers at the same time that some of the region's most prominent Republicans are saying those numbers came at a steep political price.