House Dems slam María Elvira Salazar for blaming SCOTUS, not Donald Trump, for Venezuelans losing TPS

House Democrats are slamming U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar for criticizing a Supreme Court decision on immigration, but not the administration that prompted it.

“Either María Elvira Salazar is grossly ineffective at advocating for her communities or she’s simply lying about her support for them,” said Madison Andrus, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-1 Monday that President Donald Trump’s administration had the right to revoke legal temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans in the U.S.

Salazar, a Coral Gables Republican, took to social media to disagree with the verdict.

“I’m deeply disappointed with today’s Supreme Court decision to abruptly end TPS for over 350,000 Venezuelans,” Salazar posted on X.

“Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro also leads Tren de Aragua — a transnational criminal enterprise. We must not send innocent people back into the grip of a narco-terrorist. That’s why I’m asking the Trump Administration to grant Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Venezuelans and CHNV beneficiaries. We should protect those fleeing tyranny, not return them to it.”

But the statement ignored that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem decided in March to revoke TPS for Venezuelans. Noem also wrote to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic Co-Chair of Florida’s congressional delegation, that she intended to fight any legal challenge to the revocation, opening the door to deport previously protected individuals to Venezuela.

“DHS has every intention of ending 2023 Venezuela TPS as soon as it obtains relief from the court order,” Noem wrote.

Wasserman Schultz later filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the challenge. Every Democrat in Florida’s delegation cosigned that brief, but Salazar did not.

“Salazar said nothing when Donald Trump moved to end TPS for Venezuelans,” Andrus said in the DCCC statement. “Her insincere requests to Trump and slapstick pieces of legislation that she knows are dead on arrival are nothing more than set dressing as she leaves her communities out to dry.”

According to the Migration Policy Institute, about 49% of all Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. reside in the Sunshine State. Miami-Dade County, which contains all of Salazar’s district, boasts the highest concentration of Venezuelans of any county in the U.S.

The DCCC has listed Salazar’s district as one of the GOP-held districts in play in 2026.