Florida state Senator Ileana Garcia (R), co-founder of Latinas for Trump, challenged President Trump’s immigration crackdown, warning that he “will lose the midterms” because of White House adviser Stephen Miller.
“I think he’s going to lose the midterms because of Stephen Miller,” Garcia told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday.
Although Garcia has been openly supportive of Trump’s plans to close the border, she has blamed Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, for the aggressive tactics used during the current crackdown.
Her comments come after federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti amid a protest against the administration’s immigration crackdown, weeks after an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in the city earlier this month.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “attacked” federal law enforcement, while Miller described Pretti as a “killer” who “tried to kill federal law enforcement.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday distanced Trump from those remarks, saying she had not heard the president “characterize Mr. Pretti in that way” and deferred to the investigation.
“Distortion, politicization, defamation – justifying what happened to Alex Pretti contradicts the American values that the administration campaigned on. He was neither a domestic terrorist nor an assassin,” Garcia wrote in a Monday post on the social platform X, responding to Miller’s characterization of the incident.
“Letting individuals like Stephen Miller, among others, who represent the government and make hard-line decisions, make comments like this will have long-term consequences. … This is not what I voted for!” she continued.
Garcia, who rallied support from Latino voters to help get Trump elected in 2016 and served in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security during his first term, blasted what she last year called “inhumane” tactics to achieve deportation goals.
Her comments mark the latest sign of growing frustration with Trump’s handling of immigration as the fallout from the Minnesota shooting grows, as observers warn the issue could have a lasting impact on the high-stakes November midterms.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports and video streaming, I go to The Hill.