Trump faces growing Republican criticism over ICE weeks before midterm elections

Some Republicans are stepping out of line with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, criticizing how the White House has deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Over the past week, House and Senate lawmakers have privately and publicly spoken out against or questioned President Donald Trump’s all-out approach to deportations.Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), whom Trump endorsed in August, released a campaign ad last week that chided Trump’s immigration policies as having “gone too far.” Salazar filmed the video outside the White House and said voters in her heavily Hispanic district felt betrayed over how deportations have largely swept up Hispanic illegal immigrants. Trump hit Salazar back on social media several times, even resharing a post on Truth Social that called for a “NEW Republican to Replace Salazar.”Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) privately pushed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to release a woman from ICE detention because the detainee is expected to be deported to a country that she is not from.Fatou Traore “is currently in the United States legally under a 2011 withholding of removal order and is a wife and mother of 4 children, with no criminal history,” Miller-Meeks wrote in a letter to Mullin, although it is unclear if Traore has legal clearance to be in the U.S. “Deporting Fatou would deprive a young family of their mother and would violate the withholding of removal order, which allows Fatou to work and reside in the United States legally.”Miller-Meeks has not posted the letter on her congressional website or social media, and Trump has not publicly commented on her request. Trump endorsed Miller-Meeks last year.Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) told Politico on Tuesday that the Trump administration needed to “admit you’re doing something wrong” on deportations.“With all that’s going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say: ‘Maybe we’re doing something wrong here or there,’ and then adjust to that,” Justice said. Sen.-elect Jim Justice (R-WV) arrives to join other Republicans in choosing new leadership on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) By Wednesday, however, Justice had clarified in a post on X that his concerns were based on his role on the Senate Agriculture Committee following a string of illegal immigrant arrests in Kansas communities that are home to livestock processing companies.“Let me be crystal clear: I support President Trump’s immigration strategy, full stop,” Justice wrote. “Our brave ICE officers are doing an incredible job protecting our communities, and they must continue to focus on criminals who are here illegally and putting Americans in danger.”Outside Congress, former Maine Gov. Paul LePage is a Republican congressional candidate who has waded into immigration matters following an ICE-involved fatal shooting in the state earlier this year.LePage stated that his son’s wife’s father was being deported by ICE and claimed that it was a racial matter.“I have a father, my son’s wife’s dad is here legally, but he’s being deported because he came from a country that’s not of the certain liking of some people in Washington,” LePage said during an event with police on Aug. 21 in Augusta, Maine. “That’s not right. He has a work permit. He should be allowed to stay. Would I go after everybody that’s here that have work permits and have been here for decades? Probably not. I’d probably go for the gang people and the criminals.”However, ICE arrests and detains people based on whether they have legal approval to be in the country, regardless of whether that person has been issued a temporary work permit. All arrestees go before a federal immigration judge who determines if he or she will ultimately be removed from the country. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) listens as Vice President JD Vance speaks during an event on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe, Kansas. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool) Kansas Republicans second-guessed the Trump administration over the weekend following a recent flurry of arrests targeting illegal immigrants at cattle processing facilities in the state.Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who is up for reelection in November, called out ICE for not giving advance notice to local police about its checkpoints in and around southwestern Kansas last week.“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall wrote in a post to X. “Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe.”FAKE CARTIER WATCHES WITH $28 MILLION RETAIL VALUE SEIZED ENTERING U.S. FROM CHINASen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) also said he took a personal interest in who ICE was arresting in Kansas.A White House official told the Washington Examiner that the Trump administration is enforcing the laws Congress passed and that ICE was “targeting the worst of the worst, but if we encounter someone in the country illegally, we will arrest them. This administration does not ignore the rule of law and will not pick and choose which laws we enforce.”