Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric, often perceived as anti-Mexican within the Latino community, has not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill, where prominent Latino GOP leaders are working to put roadblocks onto his path toward their party's nomination.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles and a Republican congressman from Florida, told The Hill he would not consider backing Trump until the real-estate tycoon changes his ways. The mogul should make an effort to correct remarks in which he claimed that Mexico brought criminals and rapists to the United States, Curbelo suggested.

"He would have to start by apologizing to all the people he's offended and for the mockery that he's made out of the presidential campaign," the congressman noted.

Curbelo minced no words when it came to the former "Apprentice" star's current aspirations. If Trump were to manage to move into the White House come 2017, his election would mark "a bad thing for the country," the 35-year-old congressman insisted.

"It would do a great harm to our country and further erode the trust of the American people in their government," he said.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., meanwhile, said Trump has created much anger within her constituency, a fact that complicates efforts to increase the turnout of Hispanic Republicans in the critical swing state.

"I represent an immigrant-rich community. Many of us are not happy with those comments," she said. "Some don't think that's a problem. I do."

But Ros-Lehtinen said she would accept her fellow party member's decision if they chose to nominate Trump in the end.

"Whoever's the nominee, I'm going to support him," she said.

Beyond Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Trump this month also drew the ire of a group of prominent Hispanic intellectuals who published a declaration on Univision opposing the businessman's presidential run, Time magazine reported. "His hate speech appeals to lower passions like xenophobia, machismo, political intolerance and religious dogmatism," the signers of the document said.