Efforts by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to push a GOP federal funding package through the House is being met with heavy resistance from Democrats demanding that the Trump administration restrain ICE operations, leaving Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) voicing his frustration about the situation to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News.
Gimenez said, “We’ve been warning the administration about the enforcement that’s been going on. We thought there should’ve been a course correction a long time ago, and now I guess it’s gonna be forced on us by the Democrats. Unfortunately, we could’ve done it ourselves, we should’ve done it ourselves. But that didn’t happen.”
GOP Rep. Gimenez: “We’ve been warning the administration about the enforcement that’s been going on. We thought there should’ve been a course correction a long time ago, and now I guess it’s gonna be forced on us by the Democrats. We should’ve been focusing on criminals and gang… pic.twitter.com/HAK7B6SmNr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 2, 2026
When Bartiromo asked Gimenez, “what should’ve happened?” the Congressman replied, “We should’ve been focusing on criminals and gang members and people who have active deportation orders. I don’t think we should’ve been focusing on people who have been here for a long time, grandmothers, et cetera, that happen to be in the neighborhood when you’re doing an enforcement action.”
He added: “I think that was a mistake and I think it’s coming back to haunt us right now.”
Bartiromo responded, “Tom Homan said now he’s focused on criminals,” to which Gimenez said, “Yeah, and that’s what we should have been focused on from the get-go. Unfortunately, we went beyond that, okay? And we shouldn’t have.”
Gimenez asserted that many of the immigrants have value “to our economy” and he reiterated that the focus should have been on any criminal element, the “group that the President said he was going to boot out of the country.”
Bartiromo told Gimenez “you make a great point, Congressman.”
One Democratic candidate challenging Gimenez in his re-election bid this year, retired Navy Commander Phil Ehr, replied to Gimenez on social media: “Liar. ¡Mentiroso! You are the administration. You lied about conditions at Krome. You let FEMA funds from your own district bankroll Alligator Alcatraz. You stood by while Cubans and Venezuelans lost TPS and were detained inhumanely, and you supported it.”
Liar. ¡Mentiroso! You are the administration.
You lied about conditions at Krome.
You let FEMA funds from your own district bankroll Alligator Alcatraz.
You stood by while Cubans and Venezuelans lost TPS and were detained inhumanely, and you supported it.— Phil Ehr (@PhilEhr) February 2, 2026
Without providing evidence for his accusations, Ehr added of the Cuban-born Gimenez: “Corrupt Carlos has never stood for anything that didn’t increase his net worth. This time, he crossed a line that ends careers. Cubans who fled brutality are now being tortured in America because of him. Voters won’t forget that.”
Another Democratic congressional candidate, Bernard Taylor — who’s running against incumbent GOP Rep. Brian Mast in the 21st District — also replied to Gimenez: “You weren’t singing that tune a couple weeks ago. My people down in Miami see right through this terrible attempt to CYA and it ain’t gonna work.”