U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez says the Trump administration and Congress should find “middle ground” on enforcing immigration laws to go after immigrants convicted of crime and those who are “productive members of our society.”
In an interview Saturday on CNN, the South Florida Republican member of Congress said he has directly relayed his concerns about President Donald Trump’s deportation enforcement strategy with Administration officials.
U.S. immigration policy, he said, has swung like a pendulum between the previous Biden administration and the current Trump administration.
“With the Biden administration, you had a wide open border causing really chaos in this country — so you had a pendulum go all the way over here,” he said.
“When you release that pendulum, it goes all the way over here — and I think we need to get back to the middle, so that we continue to deport those that are criminals, that are gang members, that have deportation orders,” Giménez said.
He said there are many immigrants with “protective” status, meaning they are here legally under humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
🚨 The Biden Administration created absolute chaos at our border — now we’re left to clean up their mess.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) June 14, 2025
I am fighting to protect hard working families while going after the violent criminals and gangs Biden allowed to flood into our country. pic.twitter.com/BzUmgpCD58
“They actually had a legal status here, were working, and actually were productive members of our society,” he said. “We need to find a solution for that … and we need to make sure that they can continue to work.”
About 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela were allowed to enter the U.S. under the humanitarian parole program created by the Biden administration. They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S.
TPS has allowed hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans to live and work in the U.S. Trump is trying to revoke permits for about 1 million TPS holder from Haiti and Venezuela.
Immigrant advocates are fighting the Administration in federal court to continue humanitarian parole and TPS.
Giménez said he has told Administration officials with his views about not targeting immigrants with temporary legal status and not convicted criminals.
“I've relayed my concerns to the administration and I'll continue to relay my concerns to the administration,” Giménez said. “We need to find the middle ground, because, again, I think that's the right thing to do."
Giménez said he applauded Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday when he said federal immigration enforcement agents should not pursue undocumented immigrants in certain industries.
Wrote Trump: “Our great farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. That is not good…Changes are coming!”
Giménez told CNN that he believes the list of workers and industries should be expanded.
READ MORE: Miami GOP congresswoman says she has 'revolutionary' legislation to fix immigration system
“He has other people in his ear on the other side,” said Giménez referring to immigration hardliners in the administration who want to boost deportations “They're a little bit more extreme than I am, actually a lot more extreme than I am in the case of immigrants here working in our country.”
“Immigrants come in all shapes and sizes and they do all kinds of different things,” he said. “We need to find what makes sense for the United States of America and then put a good policy in place to make that happen.”
Added Giménez: “We're going to continue to have dialog.”
Another Miami Republican member of Congress hinted Friday at immigration policy changes forthcoming by the Trump administration.
U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, who said she, too, spoke with Administration officials, said she and a Democratic congresswoman from Texas will be teaming up to introduce “a revolutionary piece of legislation that will offer real solutions to fix our immigration system and finally bring order to chaos for good.”
Salazar and Giménez are both Cuban-Americans with large numbers of constituents from Latin America and the Caribbean.
In her post on X, Salazar said she is working on the bipartisan legislation with U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat representing El Paso, Texas.
Salazar has been critical of Trump’s aggressive deportation policy, saying “long-time workers, many of whom have built their lives in this country, are being taken away,” noting the construction, hotel and agriculture industries.
“It’s time for Congress to Act and bring a solution,” she said in promising a bill in Congress to repair the nation’s broken immigration system.
“Stay tuned. Help is on the way,” she said without offering any additional details.
