The Cuban-American Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar celebrated the statements made by President Donald Trump on CBS's 60 Minutes program, in which he admitted that his deportation policy was "too harsh" and opened the door to negotiating with Democrats for a legal status for undocumented immigrants without criminal records.
In a message posted on X, Salazar directly responded to the president: "Well done, Mr. President! What you described on 60 Minutes is exactly what the Dignity Act is about. A piece of immigration legislation led by Republicans with bipartisan support."
The congresswoman correlated Trump's statements point by point with her own legislative proposal, the Dignity Act, which she reintroduced in July 2025 alongside Democrat Veronica Escobar.
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In the interview aired on Sunday, Trump acknowledged that deporting workers without criminal records had a real political cost: "When you walk into a hotel and there is a woman who has worked there as a maid, as a cleaner, and suddenly she is taken out of the country, it’s tough, it’s really tough."
The president also outlined the contours of a possible agreement: "Remove the killers, remove all the violent individuals, remove the drug traffickers, but negotiate something for the people who have been here for ten or fifteen years."
Salazar enthusiastically took up those words: "You said it: for those who have been here for ten or fifteen years, 'negotiate something for them.' That is the core of the Dignity legislation."
The congresswoman went further and appealed to Trump's historical ambition: "Mr. President, I have said it repeatedly: you can unite Republicans and Democrats to fix our broken immigration system once and for all. A problem that has lasted forty years. You can surpass Reagan's legacy by achieving historic immigration reform. This is your moment."
The political context makes this convergence particularly significant. The Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in the legislative elections on November 3—the first time since 2006—and a CBS exit poll revealed that 58% of voters felt the administration's immigration measures had gone too far.
Salazar also argued that immigration transcends border security: "It's not just about border security. It's about the economy and the cost of living: housing, food, health, manufacturing."
The Dignity Law, which as of October 15 had 40 co-sponsors in Congress —20 Republicans and 20 Democrats—, proposes a renewable temporary legal status of between seven and ten years for immigrants with no criminal record who have been residents for at least five years, without a direct path to citizenship and with a restitution payment of approximately 7,000 dollars.
The relationship between Salazar and Trump went through months of turbulence before reaching this point. In September, Congresswoman recorded a video in front of the White House in which she denounced that half of the 50,000 people detained in July had no criminal record, which triggered an angry response from the president. After a private reconciliation, Trump formally endorsed her on October 31.
María Elvira's statement comes as her continuation in Congress awaits a recount of votes in Florida's 27th district. Although she declared herself the winner on election night, the preliminary results showed she had a lead of just 1,090 votes — a margin of 0.44% — over the Democrat and former broadcaster Eliott Rodríguez. The machine recount is scheduled for this Monday, November 9, at 10:00 a.m. at the Miami-Dade election office in Doral.
For the Cuban community in the United States, Trump's opening comes at a critical time: arrests of Cubans by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
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