Although for several years he defended Venezuelan immigrants in the United States, Marco Rubio It has radically changed mind.
His designation by Trump as Secretary of State has turned his position on the Temporary protection status (TPS) for the citizens of Venezuelaand has aligned it with the hard anti -immigrant agenda of the Republican president.
This is confirmed A blond letter made public these days in which, miserying himself, He supports Trump’s decision to end the TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans that have this legal support to remain in US territory.
“Designate Venezuela under the TPS does not defend the fundamental interests of the United States nor prioritizes the United States and its citizens. Therefore, It is contrary to the foreign policy and national interest of the United States”, Wrote the Cuban -American politician at the end of January to the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem.
The letter, that It transcended now in the middle of the appeal of Trump’s government against a judicial ruling that stopped the elimination of this temporal protection, “marks a radical change for Rubio, who for years supported the TPS for Venezuelans, even when he was a US senator during the Biden administration,” Underline an article of The new herald.
The White House seeks to reverse the decision of federal judge Edward Chenfrom San Francisco, who on March 31 – just two months after Rubio’s letter to Noem – blocked the government order to withdraw that program that protects its beneficiaries from being deported.
With this resolution, Venezuelan immigrants and also the Haitians currently protected by the TPS can continue under their amparo until a definitive determination is made on their legal future.
Federal Judge blocks Trump’s order to revoke the TPS for Venezuelans and Haitians
Before and now
The temporary protection status It is granted to immigrants whose country of origin is going through a situation considered extraordinaryas a natural disaster, an armed conflict or a situation of instability or political and social violence that threatens his life of being deported.
In 2017during Trump’s first mandate, the then senator for Florida Marco Rubio advocated granting that protection to Venezuelans They were in the United States.
“Given the current political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, it is not the best for the United States to deport non -violent Venezuelan citizens back to the country at this time,” he wrote at that time as he remembers The new herald.
Then, in 2019 today Secretary of State was the only Republican who sponsored a TPS law for the citizens of Venezuela, and two years later, when Venezuelans were finally included in this program by the Biden Administration, Rubio celebrated that decision publicly.
Even, according to the journalistic article, requested an extension of the program for more Venezuelans to qualify and warned Biden that “not doing so could represent a true death sentence for many who had fled the Maduro regime.”
However, already as part of Donald Trump’s second government, Rubio seems to have forgotten his own words. Now is the criterion that The TPS “facilitates and encourages mass migration”according to his letter to the Secretary of National Security.
For others, it makes it clear that under its leadership “the State Department will no longer carry out any activity that facilitates or foster mass migration” and its relationships. Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the western hemisphere, will prioritize the safety of US borders, ”Rubio wrote.
“Devastor”, although “is not surprising”
The public revelation of Marco Rubio’s letter to Kristi Noem has been A hard blow to the Venezuelan community in the United States and immigration defenders.
“Rubio was once our voice. Now he is promoting policies that treat us as enemies. I hope you will reconsider and publicly correct these recommendations, so that our community can live in peace and continue contributing to this nation that we now call home,” said the Venezuelan-American activist Carlos Pereira.
In his opinion, cited by The new heraldis sad and discouraging “see the person who now leads the diplomacy of our nation, someone from our own community who was once with us, now misinning the federal administration about who we are.”
For its part, Adelys Ferro, Executive Director of the American Venezuelan Caucus And one of the first Venezuelan-American who advocated the TPS for Venezuelans, said that the radical change of the Cuban American politician is “Devastor” but not a surprise.
“It is devastating to see that Marco Rubio himself who defended the TPS for Venezuelans, who pressed for protection and supported our community, now turns our backs. Unfortunately, it does not surprise us, but that does not make it less painful,” he said.
Ferro stressed the revocation of TPS for Venezuelans It would put tens of thousands of people at risk And undermine “the long -standing commitments of the United States with humanitarian protections,” says Florida’s publication.
The Criticism of Rubio From the Venezuelan community for its new position on the TPS they are added to those that it has already been reaping, together with Republican legislators from Florida, by His complicity with Trump’s anti -immigrants policies.
Organizations and activists consider that complicity A betrayal of immigrantsto its voters and the Latin communities in general, as stated A recently installed fence in Miami directed against Rubio and the Cuban-American congressmen María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart.
Also This week it transpired than the Mike Fernández Cuban American Entrepreneur called these politicians to face Trump’s bloody migratory policy and put aside the silence in which they have been plunged during these three months of mandate.
In an open letter to Rubio, Salazar, Giménez and Díaz-Balart, the influential businessman pointed out that his silence in the face of Trump’s immigration policies “is not neutrality or ignorance, it is complicity and cowardice” and pointed out that this position “has caused fear and real damage to many in our community, in their districts.”
“If you cannot find your voice at this time or distinguish between one dictator and another, it may be time to give way to others who can and have a vision that they may miss,” he recriminated.
