Former Trumpist says that immigration repression threatens the electoral future of the Republican Party

The Donald Trump administration’s immigration offensive went from being just a point of discomfort to becoming politically unsustainable, in the assessment of Florida’s Republican state senator Ileana Garcia. A former close ally of the president, she claims that the Republican Party risks losing the mid-term legislative elections if the White House does not quickly review its toughest immigration enforcement tactics.

The distancing gained strength after episodes that affected her personally. At a Florida airport, a TSA agent questioned whether Garcia was a U.S. citizen after hearing her speak Spanish, despite her being born in Miami. For the first time, he said he feared his son could be approached by federal agents just because he looked Latino. At the same time, he began receiving requests from voters trying to locate relatives detained by ICE.

The definitive breaking point, according to the senator, was the death of nurse Alex Pretti, 37, shot by federal agents during a protest in Minneapolis. The government’s initial attempt to portray Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”, despite videos disputing this version, provoked outrage. “It went too far. What happened on Saturday was disgusting,” he said.

Garcia has symbolic weight within Latino Trumpism. Cuban-American, she was an enthusiast of Trump’s campaign in 2016, abandoned her career in Spanish-language media to co-found the group “Latinas for Trump” and then joined the Republican’s first administration, at the Department of Homeland Security.

During that period, he said, the focus was on closing the border and building the wall with Mexico, policies he supported. Now, he claims that the government has moved towards practices that it considers excessive and politically destructive, such as violent removals of people from vehicles and attempts to deport unaccompanied children.

She attributes the escalation mainly to Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff and main creator of immigration policy. “I think Trump is going to lose the midterm elections because of Stephen Miller,” he said. The White House did not respond directly to the criticism, but reiterated that the president does not want deaths and blamed Democratic leaders for the Minneapolis episode.

Despite the criticism, Garcia said he was not absolving Trump of responsibility. “I’m not absolving the president,” he said, although he highlighted that he still has personal appreciation for him and recalled conversations in which Trump was receptive to the so-called “Dreamers” staying in the United States.

The senator’s stance is unusual even among Hispanic Republicans in Florida. In the state Legislature, she supported immigration enforcement measures, but voted against proposals that criminalized irregular entry into the state and restricted educational rights of young immigrants.

In an election year, Garcia says he does not fear internal retaliation. He claims that he received death threats after classifying the mass deportations as “unacceptable and inhumane”, but maintains that silence within the party is more dangerous. “What I fear is someone stopping my son,” he said.

For the senator, the wear and tear is already reflected at the polls, citing the recent Democratic victory in Miami after decades of Republican dominance. According to her, migration policy is no longer just an ideological issue and has become a moral and electoral test for the party — with the potential to define its political future.