Florida Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar has broken ranks with Cuban-American Republican lawmakers in Miami, calling the Trump administration\u2019s decision to pause all immigration processes for citizens of 19 countries, including Cubans, Venezuelans and Haitians, \u201cunfair\u201d and \u201cun-American.\u201d The U.S. president announced the measure after two National Guard members were shot by an Afghan migrant in Washington D.C. before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States does not believe in collective punishment. We do not punish the innocent<\/a> for the sins of the guilty. Freezing asylum, green card, and citizenship processes is not the answer. It punishes hardworking, law-abiding immigrants who followed every step of the legal process<\/a>. That is unfair, un-American, and it goes against everything this country stands for,\u201d Salazar said in a statement sent to EL PA\u00cdS.<\/p>\n \u201cBackground checks already exist to stop terrorists, and they should. In South Florida, thousands of people who fled socialist tyrannies did it the right way: they applied legally, passed background checks, and waited their turn. Many of them are ready to vote for democracy and freedom!\u201d the congresswoman added.<\/p>\n Her statements contrast with those made by her fellow Cuban-American Republican congressmembers from Miami, Carlos Gim\u00e9nez and Mario D\u00edaz-Balart, who held a separate press conference last Wednesday and said that the measure announced by the Trump administration was a consequence of the \u201creckless abandonment of border security\u201d by the administration of former Democratic president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n For years, the three Cuban-American lawmakers have presented themselves as a cohesive political bloc, demanding a hard line against totalitarian regimes, applauding sanctions, and defending controversial measures in the public eye. In recent months, they have displayed almost monolithic unity in support of Trump and his agenda, to the point of being dubbed \u201cthe three crazy Cubans\u201d by the president\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n Their nickname encapsulates their position as an inflexible and strident trio, whose collaboration illustrates the president\u2019s influence on South Florida politics. Last year, they joined forces to lobby the administration over an agreement that would have allowed Chevron to operate in Venezuela, a license that was subsequently not renewed. They have also publicly endorsed the president\u2019s immigration policy<\/a>, blaming the Biden administration for the migration crisis and portraying Trump\u2019s measures as necessary for security, in line with the national Republican narrative.<\/p>\n A strategic shift<\/p>\n Salazar\u2019s change of heart comes amid growing unrest in South Florida<\/a> over the president\u2019s immigration offensive, which has hit communities that supported him and helped turn Miami-Dade County \u2014 a Democratic stronghold for decades \u2014 Republican in the last presidential election.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has canceled humanitarian programs that allowed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians, many of them residents of Miami-Dade, to live and work legally in the country. It has also intensified operations to arrest migrants at workplaces, on highways, and in immigration courts, separating thousands of families and creating a climate of fear in these communities.<\/p>\n This climate has been politically exploited. The three legislators have been criticized by Democrats in advertising campaigns with billboards that have appeared on major Miami freeways, calling them \u201ctraitors\u201d for their support of Trump\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n