Latest news with #MaríaElviraSalazar
NBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Meet the Press NOW — July 15
President Trump travels to battleground Pennsylvania to tout new investments in artificial intelligence while also trying to drum up support for his sweeping domestic agenda. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss the Dignity Act, a new bipartisan legislation she co-sponsored with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) that would allow some undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status. NBC News Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard is on the ground in Tucson, Arizona ahead of a special election primary to fill the seat of late Congressman Raúl Grijalva.
NBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Bipartisan bill to provide legal status to certain migrants is not ‘amnesty': Republican co-sponsor
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss the Dignity Act, a new bipartisan legislation she co-sponsored with Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) that would allow some undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status. Rep. Salazar argues that President Trump knows that undocumented workers are needed in the country and says this is the moment for the president to embrace the legislation. July 15, 2025
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Jan. 6 committee lawyer running for Congress in Trump district
Robin Peguero, who served as investigative counsel for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, is launching a bid to unseat Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) in Florida. 'It's time for us to write a new story for South Florida — one where hard-working families stop being forced to choose between making rent or seeing a doctor, where small businesses have access to resources and tax relief, and where we no longer get squeezed by corporations and billionaires while politicians like María Elvira Salazar do their bidding,' Peguero said in a statement on Tuesday announcing his candidacy. 'Miami deserves a representative in the House who fights for them. That's the leader I'll be.' The seat is one of 35 held by House Republicans that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it plans to target in the 2026 midterms. Peguero was raised by a mother from Ecuador and a father from the Dominican Republic, and he has a background in law and politics. He spent time working for former Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and was also a former Miami-Dade County homicide prosecutor. He's currently a criminal law professor at St. Thomas University College of Law. Peguero is the latest Democrat to enter the race to take on the Florida Republican. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, accountant Alex Fornino and businessman Richard Lamondin have also launched bids to take on Salazar. The Florida Republican handily won her last election in November against Democrat Lucia Baez-Geller by more than 20 points. President Trump won the district last year by close to 15 points, according to The Downballot. The Hill has reached out to Salazar's campaign for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Former Jan. 6 committee lawyer running for Congress in Trump district
Robin Peguero, who served as investigative counsel for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, is launching a bid to unseat Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) in Florida. 'It's time for us to write a new story for South Florida — one where hard-working families stop being forced to choose between making rent or seeing a doctor, where small businesses have access to resources and tax relief, and where we no longer get squeezed by corporations and billionaires while politicians like María Elvira Salazar do their bidding,' Peguero said in a statement on Tuesday announcing his candidacy. 'Miami deserves a representative in the House who fights for them. That's the leader I'll be.' Peguero was raised by a mother from Ecuador and a father from the Dominican Republic, and he has a background in law and politics. He spent time working for former Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and was also a former Miami-Dade homicide prosecutor. He's currently a professor at St. Thomas University College of Law teaching criminal law. Peguero is the latest Democrat to enter the race to take on the Florida Republican. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, accountant Alex Fornino and businessman Richard Lamondin have also launched bids on the Democratic side to take on Salazar. The Florida Republican handily won her last election in November against Democrat Lucia Baez-Geller by more than 20 points. President Trump won the district last year by close to 15 points, according to The Downballot.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion - The Supreme Court just put Venezuelan lives at risk — Congress must act
The Supreme Court just opened the door for the Trump administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S. It's a legal decision with devastating real-world consequences — one that places countless lives in danger. Deportation, in many cases, will not mean a return to stability. It will mean being sent back to a country ruled by a dictatorship, or to detention in Salvadoran prisons under new regional migration arrangements. This makes the bipartisan bill introduced last week by Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) all the more urgent. Their proposal to redesignate protected status for Venezuela isn't just a humane gesture — it is a lifeline, and a much-needed corrective to a policy shift that threatens to dismantle the protections that hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have relied on for years. Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans was originally granted during the Biden administration in recognition of the dire circumstances they were fleeing. But the return of President Trump has brought a hardline stance. Hundreds of Venezuelans have been deported in recent months, many without due process. Most have no criminal records, no ties to gangs, and no realistic pathway to safety. Deportation, for many, is a sentence to further trauma, persecution, or even death. It's worth asking why these protections were granted in the first place. Venezuelans are not merely fleeing poverty or economic collapse. They are fleeing a dictatorship. Under Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan state has systematically dismantled every democratic institution, including free elections, independent courts, and press freedom. Much of the political opposition has been jailed or exiled. In the 2024 election — only the latest example of this — the regime stalled the vote, manipulated the process, and has yet to publish credible results. The consensus belief worldwide is that the opposition candidate won but that the result was fabricated to the contrary. Yet even after two decades of authoritarianism and the largest refugee crisis in the hemisphere, some voices continue to claim that U.S. sanctions — not the regime — are the primary cause of the exodus. This narrative, often backed by questionable empirical methods, is not only misleading; it's dangerous. Reducing Venezuela's crisis to mere economics erases the lived reality of millions. It provides cover for those who argue that Temporary Protected Status should be revoked because this is just another wave of economic migrants. Worse, it lends credence to a damaging and false narrative that Venezuelans are criminals — people fleeing poverty who then commit crimes in the U.S. — rather than refugees escaping a repressive regime, seeking dignity and safety. This mischaracterization is not only inaccurate but also undermines U.S. moral leadership. In recent research I conducted, we tested the supposed link between sanctions and migration by examining whether fluctuations in Venezuela's oil revenues — a proxy for sanctions pressure — predicted migration flows. What we found was striking: more Venezuelans fled not when oil revenues fell, but when they rose. In other words, when the regime had more money to entrench itself and expand repression, hopelessness deepened — and more people fled. Even the most conservative reading of the data finds no evidence that sanctions caused the exodus. And yet, critics — some of whom inadvertently echo the regime's own talking points — continue to argue that the crisis is merely economic. They're wrong. And by repeating that myth, they are helping justify the very policy shifts now putting lives at risk. Maduro didn't just bankrupt Venezuela. He stole its future. He took not only the people's money, but their freedom. Venezuelans in the United States are not economic migrants — they are refugees from a brutal dictatorship. Temporary Protected Status is not charity. It is the bare minimum a country that claims to be a beacon of liberty should offer to those fleeing persecution. Congress has the chance — and now, the responsibility — to act. Dany Bahar is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and an associate professor at Brown University. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
