María Elvira Salazar: much talk against communism, but what has she done for Cubans?
The Miami congresswoman supported a law that allocated billions of dollars to strengthen immigration enforcement. Now, weeks before the elections, she criticizes the excesses of a policy she helped fund.
Miami | October 9, 2026 — Malecón90
For years, María Elvira Salazar has used the fight against communism as one of her principal political banners. Her message connects with the pain of thousands of Cubans who escaped a dictatorship. Equating the Democratic Party with communism, however, distorts a far more complex historical reality.
It was Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966, opening an extraordinary path to permanent residency. Measures to receive Cubans from the Mariel boatlift were developed under Jimmy Carter. Bill Clinton established the wet-foot, dry-foot policy, and Joe Biden implemented a humanitarian-parole program that allowed the temporary entry of many Cubans.
Democratic administrations also made restrictive decisions, such as Barack Obama's termination of wet foot, dry foot, while Republican administrations took favorable measures. History belongs exclusively to neither party.
María Elvira Salazar faces a political contradiction that deserves an explanation to her constituents: in July 2025, she voted for Donald Trump's large legislative package, which included approximately $75 billion in additional funding for ICE, and in September 2026 she appeared in a campaign advertisement saying immigration operations had gone too far.
Meanwhile, 500,000 Cubans with I-220A still lack a general immigration solution despite the congresswoman's announcements, proposals and efforts.
The contradiction that deserves scrutiny is political: why warn Cubans so insistently about a supposed communist danger from Democrats while devoting less attention to explaining the concrete consequences of votes cast in Washington?
The Cuban exile community knows too well what it means to lose its freedoms. That is precisely why it deserves political debate based on facts, not simplistic comparisons between U.S. parties and Cuba's dictatorship.
Freedom for Cuba remains a legitimate cause. Repeating that slogan, however, does not replace the duty to account for immigration, security, the economy and the everyday problems of Miami families.
- Malecón90 Newsroom
