Miami lawmakers: Silence isn’t leadership — speak up on behalf of our immigrants | Opinion

Community leaders in Miami want our Republican congressional delegation — Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar — to speak out against President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed tactics in detaining immigrants and cracking down on protests.

What happened in Minneapolis feels like a breaking point. Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was killed by federal agents during a protest — an incident that has raised serious questions about accountability and the use of force. What happened to Pretti should alarm every American, regardless of political affiliation.

In Miami, of all places, this should be a no-brainer. We were built, in large part, by immigrants. Yes, securing the border is important. But so are due process and protecting our constitutional rights. After the events in Minneapolis resulting in the deaths of two people at the hands of ICE agents, speaking out is no longer optional. Our members of Congress should be leading the charge.

That’s where a nonprofit organization called Keep Them Honest comes in. Its mission: to advance immigrant rights by holding elected officials accountable. Unfortunately, its existence is necessary. Thankfully, we have principled individuals, at least in that organization, who are willing to put themselves on the line.

In a new ad campaign, the group is demanding that Congress rein in the administration after the debacle in Minnesota. In the ads, two more community leaders have stepped up — Alberto Ibargüen, former Miami Herald publisher and former CEO of the Knight Foundation, and Eliott Rodriguez, former WFOR CBS4 television news anchor and reporter. The ads are running in English and Spanish on television, on social media and on billboards across South Florida.

In “Silence is not Leadership,” Rodriguez calls on elected officials to speak up, saying “when our leaders stay silent, that silence is not leadership.”

In “Defend America,” Ibargüen puts it bluntly: “Yes, we need secure borders and a rational immigration policy, but policies driven by hate and division, enforced by masked men. That’s not who we are. Demand better from our representatives.”

Last year, Keep Them Honest ran a six-figure ad campaign aimed at the same members of Congress asking them to push back on Trump’s mass immigration policies. Four prominent community leaders stepped up: former Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padrón, former Spanish-TV journalist Leticia Callava, children’s rights activists David Lawrence Jr., and former WPLG Local 10 reporter Michael Putney.

Are the ad campaigns having any effect? Hard to know, but a few Republicans have criticized Trump immigration policies. Salazar called one previous immigration crackdown “unAmerican” and sponsored an immigration reform bill called the “Dignity Act.” On X last week, the day of the shooting, she wrote that “Washington’s failure on immigration is hitting our streets. Minneapolis is the result of Washington refusing to fix a broken immigration system and continuing to enforce outdated laws.”

She also said on NewsNation Wednesday that “Hispanics are very, very offended” because they thought Trump would focus on deporting criminals rather than “lumping together the gardener with the gangster and the nanny with the narco.”

Another interesting example: Miami state Sen. Ileana Garcia, the Cuban-American co-founder of Latinas for Trump, also took to X to say that “justifying what happened to Alex Pretti contradicts the American values the administration campaigned on.”

The Editorial Board has previously written about the escalating assault on immigrants in our community and warned that the administration has gone too far. What happened in Minneapolis is shocking and yet, sadly, predictable.

Most Americans support border security and immigration reform. But the tactics being deployed — masked agents, enforcement operations targeting Democrat-led cities and quasi-guerilla tactics — have gone far beyond law enforcement.

We applaud the growing coalition of community leaders joining Keep Them Honest to pressure our representatives to speak up for the communities they represent. When leaders such as Ibargüen and Rodriguez join the other heavyweights, elected officials should listen.

This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM.