South Florida Latino Trump voters stand by him, however query his immigration insurance policies
MIAMI — After 4 months with President Donald Trump on the helm, Reinerio de la Torre says he is ready to see if the president fulfills his guarantees.
The 56-year-old electrician, who got here from Cuba 18 years in the past, voted for Trump in November. However he says the president has gone too far with immigration, and he doesn’t prefer to see hardworking individuals being deported. De la Torre additionally disagrees with the partial journey ban on Cuba, saying “visas ought to be determined case by case.”
“But it surely’s nonetheless early within the presidency and we now have to present him time to see what he does,” de la Torre mentioned exterior Hialeah’s Metropolis Corridor, the place roosters have been heard crowing within the background. The road that runs throughout from it was just lately named after the president.
Patricia, 52, who declined to present her final identify, echoed de la Torre’s sentiment. “He’s deporting harmless individuals, and I don’t just like the tariffs, however possibly on the finish it is going to be for the higher,” she mentioned.
About 70% of Cuban Individuals residing in Florida voted for Trump within the 2024 election, and his assist in Hialeah, a working-class metropolis in Miami-Dade County with a sturdy Cuban American inhabitants, was one of many strongest. Trump held a rally right here one 12 months earlier than the election and the rise in assist he bought helped him turn into the primary Republican president to win Miami-Dade County since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Whereas Trump’s assist amongst Cuban Individuals stays sturdy and few appear to remorse their vote, worries over immigration insurance policies have begun to creep up among the many a number of voters NBC Information spoke to, particularly amongst newer arrivals.
Cuban Individuals started flocking towards Trump in large numbers throughout his first presidency, as he tightened U.S. sanctions in opposition to Cuba, banning flights to many of the island and proscribing remittances. A tough-line coverage is welcomed by many Cuban Individuals who fled the communist-run island.
A historic wave has introduced properly over half 1,000,000 of Cuban migrants to the U.S. since 2022. Cubans had lengthy been allowed to turn into U.S. residents pretty simply by the Cuban Adjustment Act, however now Trump’s immigration insurance policies have left some Cuban immigrants in authorized limbo.
Trump additionally revoked the authorized standing of migrants who entered the U.S. by the Biden-era CBP One app, which briefly allowed migrants to dwell within the U.S., and ended the parole program that gave momentary authorized standing to 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
Whereas the U.S. has been deporting Cubans usually since 2017, some latest deportations have stunned some. Information of households being separated or a former political prisoner’s parole being revoked have alarmed some locally.
Trump administration’s partial journey ban on Cuba now makes it not possible for Cubans to realize a visa to go to household, one thing that was already cumbersome because the U.S. stopped processing visas on the Havana embassy in 2017. For many visas, Cubans needed to journey to a 3rd nation, usually Guyana, which is out of attain for many Cubans.
However Cuban Individuals voted for Trump for greater than hard-line insurance policies in opposition to Cuba, and most appeared content material along with his presidency so far.
Mirta Marino, 78, a retired financial institution employee, mentioned, “Trump is making powerful coverage choices, however they’re mandatory to repair the nation.”
She mentioned many Cubans come to this nation claiming political persecution however steadily go to the island after they turn into U.S. residents. Marino, who got here in 1980 in the course of the Mariel boatlift, mentioned she by no means returned. She additionally believes some individuals come to this nation and reap the benefits of advantages with out working.
Just a few miles away within the metropolis of Doral, identified for its focus of Venezuelans, many patrons on the well-liked El Arepazo restaurant are nonetheless firmly supporting Trump as properly.
Rodrigo Torres, 22, a enterprise proprietor, mentioned he feels dangerous for all of the Venezuelans affected by Trump’s immigration insurance policies, however he mentioned it helps to get the criminals in a foreign country.
About half of the individuals deported in February didn’t have felony data and greater than half of these in ICE detention haven’t any felony costs or convictions, based on ICE knowledge.
“There are individuals getting deported for no motive,” Torres mentioned. “However I might nonetheless vote for Trump over Harris.”
Like in Hialeah, a stable majority in Doral voted for Trump in 2024. Town is residence to one of many president’s resorts, the place he held occasions and rallies earlier than the election.
Venezuelans would be the group most impacted by Trump’s immigration insurance policies. Since he was campaigning, Trump usually talked about Venezuelan gangs within the U.S.
“They’re sending us our criminals from Caracas, Venezuela,” Trump mentioned at a July 2024 rally in Doral, claiming Venezuela had despatched “all of their drug sellers, their criminals, and most of their prisoners into our nation.”
As soon as in workplace, Trump used an 18th-century wartime legislation to ship tons of of Venezuelan immigrants to a most safety jail in El Salvador, alleging they’d ties to the gang Tren de Aragua — one thing lots of the migrants’ households and attorneys have disputed. The boys haven’t been allowed to disprove any gang affiliation or contact attorneys or households. Trump additionally revoked particular authorized protections generally known as Short-term Protected Standing for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had been residing and dealing legally within the U.S.
Outdoors El Arepazo, Carolina Villalobo mentioned she didn’t vote within the presidential election as a result of she shouldn’t be but a citizen, however mentioned she by no means appreciated Trump.
“He’s very aggressive,” she mentioned. “I agree the nation must be cleaned out and the criminals ought to be deported, however it ought to be executed with extra tact.”
However amongst her prolonged household, together with siblings and nephews, she’s alone.
“My whole household continues supporting Trump,” Villalobo mentioned.
‘They definitely are feeling the stress’
The agency assist for Trump in South Florida is no surprise to Fernand Amandi, a Democratic advisor and pollster in Miami.
“I haven’t seen a single one that voted for Trump in November of 2024 come out and say: I made a mistake,” he mentioned. “What I’ve seen is an amazing quantity of rationalization, justification and unwillingness to confess that their votes have contributed to this example that’s now impacting loads of households and lots of people straight.”
As a way to have a considerable variety of voters change their minds, Amandi mentioned, there must be a scenario through which the financial system hits all-time low and it’s personally affecting them.
Regardless, Democrats are already taking jabs at Republican lawmakers in South Florida which might be up for re-election in November 2026. Lately, a bunch known as Hold Them Trustworthy launched an advert marketing campaign on Miami highways and radio criticizing Republican Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar over their assist for Trump.
Salazar has been publicly vital about a few of Trump’s immigration insurance policies and all three lawmakers have a gathering scheduled with Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem this week.
“They definitely are feeling stress, they definitely are feeling some backlash, however I’m not fairly positive but it’s to the purpose the place it has made them really feel like they’re in existential political hazard,” mentioned Amandi of the Florida Republican members of Congress. “We see it of their lack of engagement or confrontation with the Trump administration straight … they’re not criticizing the insurance policies or Trump, saying that is uncontrolled and unacceptable.”