Latinas for Trump' Co-Founder Warns Immigration Will Cost G.O.P. the Midterms
Source: NY Times
The Trump administrations immigration crackdown over the last year has gone from uncomfortable to untenable for Ileana Garcia, a Republican state senator in Florida.
A Transportation Security Administration officer at the Tallahassee airport overheard her speaking Spanish and asked whether Ms. Garcia, who was born in Miami, was an American citizen. She worried for the first time that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might stop her son, a young adult, because he looks Hispanic. Constituents have asked her for help finding immigrant relatives arrested by ICE.
Ms. Garcia, 56, has had enough. The Republican Party is in trouble, she said in an interview, predicting that it will lose this years midterm elections if the White House does not soon reconsider its harsh immigration enforcement tactics.
We should not be afraid as a party to speak up, to course correct, she said. That was before Saturday, when Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old I.C.U. nurse who was protesting in Minneapolis, and federal officials sought to portray him as a domestic terrorist. Ms. Garcia said she was dumbfounded. Its gone too far, she said. What happened Saturday was abhorrent.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/6R9T2
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/ileana-garcia-trump-immigration-crackdown.html
"But I didn't know the leopard would eat MY face."
eppur_se_muova
(41,184 posts)sakabatou
(45,857 posts)SunSeeker
(57,792 posts)She wasn't worried about all the other Latinos until the racial profiling grabbed her.
BaronChocula
(4,114 posts)What eloquent opining from someone with such lack of self-realization, she thinks she's sharing a new discovery with the world. Is she also a member of Diabetics for Sugar?
SunSeeker
(57,792 posts)
BaronChocula
(4,114 posts)I thought that was AI. Alaskan Idiot
SunSeeker
(57,792 posts)She's an idiot for sure. I feel bad for her son. She did this to him. By helping Trump get elected, she enabled racial profiling. She made it a hazard for him (and the rest of us!) to walk our nation's streets with those ICE goons lurking everywhere.
Skittles
(170,023 posts)fucking DISGUSTING
PatSeg
(52,436 posts)What did she think was going to happen? That seems to be the only way some people will learn, to have it happen to them or their family and friends.
Skittles
(170,023 posts)when I see people who just don't give a FUCK what happens to others but start whining when it all starts hitting "too close to home"......inevitably these fucking selfish ASSHOLES call themselves CHRISTIANS which begs the question: just WHAT is their religion teaching them?
PatSeg
(52,436 posts)I've been listening to such people all my life as they complain about poor people and "welfare queens". They are quick to say, "If I can make it without any assistance, why can't they?" As if everyone is identical and we all have the same advantages from day one.
Of course, when THEY lose their job or their health insurance, they are first inline for whatever help they can get because somehow THEY are entitled. They claim they earned it but all those other "losers" are lazy cheats.
Then many of them go to church every Sunday completely ignoring almost everything their "lord and savior" taught. Apparently, empathy does not come naturally to everyone.
Skittles
(170,023 posts)we don't HAVE to experience something to feel empathy and to want to help - we simply CARE - we, well, DO UNTO OTHERS
PatSeg
(52,436 posts)I think it comes naturally to some people, though others can be taught from a young age in the right environment. Sadly, there are some who just never seem to get it.
As for republicans, I think many of them come from families with the "I have mine" mentality. In other words, they were taught as children to treat empathy and compassion as a weakness.
Bluestocking
(536 posts)wolfie001
(7,292 posts)No one here at DU GAF what this POS says OR thinks. She's stupid and represents rich people who USE and then DISCARD poor people.
cstanleytech
(28,281 posts)ProudMNDemocrat
(20,657 posts)How Republicans defend this will be telling.
Skittles
(170,023 posts)trying to defend the indefensible or pretend they give a fuck about WE THE PEOPLE
synni
(691 posts)Yeah, honey, you are just a useful idiot, and you are going to be ignored.
Wonder Why
(6,607 posts)ificandream
(11,742 posts)What the hell were they thinking he would do for them?
mdbl
(8,197 posts)Like all the magats.
Response to SunSeeker (Original post)
mdbl This message was self-deleted by its author.
electric_blue68
(26,308 posts)🙄🙄
AZProgressive
(29,879 posts)He called Mexicans who came over here "rapists" (self-projection) in 2016.
I'm not sure why they expected a nuanced border policy that didn't involve racial profiling. That was one of the easiest things about Trump to predict.
Xolodno
(7,319 posts)...going by memory. When a Log Cabin Republican had some questions for W. Bush, he had the decency to say "I think your voting for the wrong party".
nycbos
(6,705 posts)The leopards ate my face song with a mariachi band.
samsingh
(18,310 posts)Lemon Lyman
(1,573 posts)
Klarkashton
(5,003 posts)ToxMarz
(2,783 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 29, 2026, 02:00 AM - Edit history (1)
Who they are and what they want is no different. Opportunistic entitled grifters seeking the path of least resistance towards wealth power and entitlement. They hitched their wagon to Trump because they thought they could leverage it the most for their own self-service. They are only concerned now because it could devalue their investment.
oasis
(53,398 posts)not fooled
(6,618 posts)wtf? Get out!
perdita9
(1,332 posts)The American people and our democracy are in trouble. Stop worrying about your political party and start paying attention to the actual people you're supposed to represent!
Bengus81
(9,934 posts)you'll give the all clear to adore him once again? No..what Latinos need is real leadership that understands what a fucking racist Trump is and your ass kicked out.
Icanthinkformyself
(365 posts)How many people have to die at a dangerous traffic intersection before local big wigs put up a yield sign, then a stop sign and, finally after enough people are dead, a traffic light? We need a traffic light to stop the carnage and we continue to get an unregulated intersection. Has Chuck emerged from under his desk to deliver that much anticipated strongly worded letter?