Florida's Marco Rubio, a champion ... er, um ... villain ... of Venezuelan refugees
I'm not sure it's possible in a single column to adequately address the depravity of Marco Rubio's blinding self-interest. But I'm going to try.
Let's start with the current situation with Venezuelans fleeing the oppressive, Communist government of Nicolas Maduro.
In 2021, the Biden Administration recognized the ongoing exodus of millions of Venezuelans fleeing their country as it crumbled under Maduro's dysfunctional and violent rule.
After years of calls for help, the United States offered an estimated 250,000 Venezuelans something called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to live and work in the United States as sanctioned refugees for a period of time, subject to renewals.
Rubio, as a U.S. Senator from Florida, was the lone Republican sponsor of the Venezuela TPS Act.
He not only championed the relocation of Venezuelans in the U.S., but he urged the Biden Administration to be more generous with admissions, arguing that denying Venezuelans more expansive entry was exposing many of them to a 'very real death sentence.'
Fast forward four years, and the situation in Venezuela hasn't changed much. Maduro is still in power, re-elected in January for the third time. And things there are still grim.
Here's what the current U.S. State Department says about Venezuela in an official travel advisory:
"Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.'
The U.S. State Department recommends that people traveling to Venezuela should update their wills, hire their own private security guards, and establish 'proof of life' check-ins with their loved ones.
Unlike Venezuela, Rubio's situation has vastly improved during the past four years. He has leveled-up to become U.S. Secretary of State, and his name keeps bubbling to the top of the list of potential Republican presidential nominees after Trump's term is up.
You'd think the elevation of Rubio would be good news for the Venezuelans seeking asylum in the United States.
But it's terrible for them because Rubio's conscience is on indefinite hiatus as he engages in career self-care by carrying out the anti-immigration policies of President Donald Trump, who has called for an end to TPS.
The Rubio who once worried about abandoning Venezuelans now limits himself to echoing the bigot-baiting of the man Rubio used to say would ruin this country if elected.
"For years to come, there are many people on the right, in the media and voters at large, that are going to be having to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump," the Marco Rubio of 2016 said.
Now, the Marco Rubio of 2025 is happily ensnared in that 'trap,' supporting Trump by abandoning the Venezuelans Rubio had championed just a few years ago.
Rubio's new position is that TPS 'facilitates and encourages mass migration,' and the United States can no longer allow the Venezuelan beneficiaries of the program to remain in the United States.
'The State Department will no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration,' he wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 'Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritize securing America's borders.'
While Rubio was betraying Venezuelans through his Trumpy epiphany on TPS, he was traveling in Latin America, speaking as if he were the same champion of those refugees.
I guess he forgot to remember his betrayal.
Just five days after issuing his letter supporting the end of TPS status for Venezuelans, Rubio was in Costa Rica calling Venezuela's government an 'enemy of humanity.'
When asked if those words were too harsh, he disagreed.
'I do not know how else to talk about a regime that has forced about 8 million citizens to leave Venezuela,' Rubio said. 'They imprison, they torture innocent individuals.'
And as if that never happened, the next day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a notice that announced that TPS for Venezuelans has ended, declaring that conditions in Venezuela were 'safe' for return.
Rubio said nothing. Somewhere a cock was crowing three times.
I only hope that one day Rubio fulfills his own prophecy from 2016. That there comes a day when he is faced with explaining and justifying how he came to lose his moral compass and fall into the trap of the man he used to call a 'con artist.'
I can't wait for that Marco Rubio to happen.
Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Florida Network. He can be reached at fcerabino@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rubio's views on Venezuelan refugees flip-flop to align with Trump
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