A group of Latino Miami-Dade Democrats is calling out “four traitorous Republican Cuban-American politicians” — with a billboard ad campaign — saying they are failing to protect tens of thousands of immigrants in South Florida from being deported under the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.
The first billboard went up earlier this month along the Palmetto expressway between Doral and Hialeah, “two of the cities most impacted by their cowardice and neglect,” said Abel S. Delgado, President of the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus and a Cuban-American, in a statement.
The billboard shows pictures of former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now Secretary of State, and three members of Congress: U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Miami. “Traitors. To Immigrants. To Miami-Dade. To The American Dream,” reads the billboard in capital letters against a red background.
“Rather than standing up for our families, they’ve stood silently while immigrant communities are targeted, detained, and deported. They’ve forgotten where they come from — but we haven’t,” said Delgado in announcing the billboard ad campaign.
WLRN reached out to those featured in the billboard ad for comment but did not get a response.
A second billboard ad is being erected on Monday off the Florida Turnpike and SW 88th Street, which appears in response to another billboard in support of the Cuban-American politicians.
The counter billboard ad was produced by a group of “Cubans with I-220A,” according to Telemundo 51. That billboard called out the “real traitors” as the late Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the late Hugo Chávez and Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega.
“We feel indignation. Here we answered with the truth," Liaste Pérez, from Cubans with I-220A, told Telemundo 51. “The only true traitors are those communist regimes that forced us to flee our countries.”
Delgado, of the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus, said he supports the billboard message from Cubans with I-220A.
READ MORE: Despite court reprieves, lawful migrants fear Trump will keep fighting to make them deportable
“We agree that the dictators portrayed in the counter-billboard are traitors, but our goal is to denounce the U.S. politicians who are acting like those dictators,” he said. “And we don't want our country to adopt the same tactics as the countries our families fled from to have a better life without dictatorships.”
“We said the first billboard was just the beginning and we meant it,” said Delgado. “These Republican politicians have turned their back on our community — but we will keep speaking out until they hear us and change course.”
Another group, Miami-based Keep Them Honest, Inc., announced Monday it launched a paid ad campaign targeting the same Cuban-American politicians.
The 501(c)(4) nonprofit said it is paying for billboards, digital ads and targeted social media aimed at “exposing the cruelty and complicity of South Florida’s top Republican officials” in supporting Trump’s deportation policies.
Salazar, who did not respond to WLRN for comment, is viewed as one of the few in Congress working to fix the nation's broken immigration system.
One of her bills, the Dignity Act, offers undocumented migrants legal residency via a set of conditions, including tougher border enforcement. It was introduced more than three years ago in Congress but remains stalled.
Earlier this month, Salazar joined about 200 congressional Democrats in co-sponsoring a bill that would enable so-called Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status holders to become lawful permanent residents.
She also sent a letter to President Donald Trump pleading with him to offer "Deferred Enforcement Departure" for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Congressman Gimenez also sent a letter to the Trump administration asking they seek a "case-by-case solution" for Venezuelan TPS recipients.
A senior U.S. State Department official told the Miami Herald that “Secretary Rubio will never apologize for putting America and Americans first.”
The South Florida Republicans have come under intense pressure since Trump — the Republican Party’s top leader — took office in January and followed through on his campaign promise to track down and deport undocumented immigrants nationwide.
He’s also targeted immigrants with temporary U.S. residency under two programs: TPS and the humanitarian parole program created under former President Joe Biden.
In February, Trump administration officials revoked an 18-month extension of TPS — which shields migrants fleeing dangerous violence or disaster in their home countries from deportation — for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. It made them deportable as of April back to a brutal dictatorship and economic collapse in their home country.
A federal judge has since temporarily blocked the move but Venezuelans — many of whom are from South Florida — may yet be deported.
The Trump administration has also announced it was moving the expiration of TPS for 500,000 Haitians from February 2026 to August. South Florida is home to tens of thousands of Haitian TPS holders. A federal judge has also blocked any possible deportations — for now.
“We are returning integrity to the TPS system, which has been abused and exploited by illegal aliens for decades," the Homeland Security Department then asserted in a statement.
The Biden-era humanitarian parole program is also on hold.
A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily halted deportations this month for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came since late 2022 after applying online with a financial sponsor and flying to a U.S. airport at their own expense.
