- GOP senators say interior enforcement is a liability ahead of the 2026 midterms, despite a sharp decline in border crossings.
- Senators criticized arrests involving long-term residents, citizens, lawful permanent residents, and people allowed to stay by court decisions.
- Rep. María Elvira Salazar backs the DIGNITY Act legal-status proposal for some long-term immigrants without criminal records.
GOP senators are warning President Trump that his immigration-enforcement campaign is turning a once-favorable issue into a liability ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Their criticism centers on operations inside the country, not a call to abandon border controls.
Illegal border crossings have dropped by more than 90 percent since President Biden left office, a result Republicans say should be a political asset. Instead, senators say, high-profile arrests and mistakes are drawing attention away from that record.
Free toolUSCIS Receipt Number Decoder
The criticism intensified after federal officers shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis during demonstrations against aggressive ICE and Border Patrol tactics. The deaths have added to senators’ concerns about how enforcement is being carried out.
Republicans face competing demands. The president has promised the largest mass-deportation operation in U.S. history, while lawmakers are voicing objections to cases involving people long established in the country.
Senators draw a line between border control and interior arrests
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said deporting people who have spent 15 or 20 years in the United States without other incidents sends “the wrong message.” He called their circumstances a “gray zone” that divides voters.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said voters want Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus on migrants who committed serious crimes, rather than people whose only violation is unlawful entry. He urged officials to leave alone people with court decisions permitting them to remain and concentrate on those currently harming others.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said operations have gone too far when citizens and lawful permanent residents are swept up. He put the risk this way:
“rather have 100 illegally present people go free than have that innocent person caught.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said entering unlawfully violates the law, but questioned whether the government could treat long-term residents more humanely. Her comments reflect a distinction several Republicans are drawing: enforcing immigration law, they argue, need not mean pursuing every person without lawful status in the same way.
Local operations have drawn criticism from Republicans
Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) criticized officers for “dragging people away” from communities where they had lived for 15 years. He said the administration needed to “step back” and acknowledge mistakes.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), usually a strong supporter of the president’s immigration agenda, faulted ICE operations in Kansas for failing to coordinate sufficiently with local police. His criticism adds local law-enforcement coordination to the concerns about mistaken arrests and the treatment of settled residents.
The objections touch several groups: people with no criminal history, citizens, lawful permanent residents, and people whose immigration-court decisions authorize them to remain. Senators have also raised concerns about workplace and community operations, which put enforcement visibly into residents’ daily lives.
The political stakes are acute in competitive races. Republican lawmakers worry that suburban and Hispanic voters could move toward Democrats if the president’s approach continues to dominate the immigration debate. They say the public focus on interior arrests is obscuring the decline in border crossings.
Salazar backs a legal-status proposal for some residents
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) has also said the agenda has gone “too far” and warned that it could hurt Republicans with Hispanic voters. She has promoted the DIGNITY Act, which would let certain long-term undocumented immigrants without criminal records pursue legal status by meeting work requirements and paying financial penalties.
The proposal points to one response to the party’s internal tension: preserve enforcement while creating a path for a limited group of long-term residents. The senators’ criticism, however, has focused on the current campaign’s reach, including operations involving people who have lived in their communities for years and individuals with court-authorized permission to stay.
