{"id":14486,"date":"2025-04-18T00:26:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T00:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14486"},"modified":"2025-04-30T19:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:21:17","slug":"a-billionaire-blasted-miami-republicans-on-immigration-maybe-rubio-others-will-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14486","title":{"rendered":"A billionaire blasted Miami Republicans on immigration. Maybe Rubio, others will listen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the Miami Herald Editorial Board<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Reps. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, Jose D\u00edaz-Balart, and Maria Salazar and Sec. Marco Rubio.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mike Fern\u00e1ndez, a major political donor and healthcare executive, is not the first person to call on Miami\u2019s Cuban-American politicians in Washington, D.C., to do more to oppose what he described as President Trump\u2019s \u201cposture of cruelty towards immigrants.\u201d But let\u2019s be frank: The voice of a billionaire like Fern\u00e1ndez in a political system run by money \u2014 think of the millions that Elon Musk spent to help reelect Trump \u2014 rings louder in political circles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s open letter published in the Herald this week <\/a>to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and three Miami members of Congress wasn\u2019t just an exercise in venting his frustrations. Fern\u00e1ndez, who lives in Coral Gables, told a Herald reporter he\u2019s willing to spend money to back his efforts and that he\u2019s paid for two full-page ads in the New York Times a<\/a>nd the Wall Street Journal blasting Trump\u2019s actions and calling on a group of Republican senators to \u201cturn back the tide of tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t find your voice at this moment, or tell the difference between one dictator and another, then perhaps it is time to make room for others who can and have a vision that you may lack,\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fern\u00e1ndez wrote in the letter to Rubio and U.S. Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart. Those three members of Congress represent many of the Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans living in Miami-Dade County who are on the verge of losing legal status that\u2019s been revoked by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio has done the most shocking about-face on protections for Venezuelans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of fighting to expand Temporary Protected Status to cover Venezuelans fleeing the Nicol\u00e1s Maduro regime, court documents show Rubio, a former U.S. senator, endorsing the Trump administration\u2019s move to end those protections<\/a>, the Herald reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After publicly welcoming the Biden administration\u2019s 2021 decision to grant TPS for Venezuelans \u2014 and then requesting an expansion so more Venezuelans could qualify \u2014 Rubio wrote in January that \u201cDesignating Venezuela under TPS does not champion core American interests or put America and American citizens first.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the same Rubio who told Biden in 2021 that sending Venezuelans back to their country could amount to a \u201cvery real death sentence,\u201d the Herald reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much has changed in the Latin American country \u2014 in fact, the Maduro regime has only gotten worse after stealing a presidential election. What has likely changed are Rubio\u2019s political calculations as Trump\u2019s secretary of state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much for the hope that having the Miami-born son of Cuban exiles in the president\u2019s Cabinet would make a big difference for those migrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Herald reported in January, Salazar, Diaz-Balart and Gimenez have said they support TPS for Venezuelans<\/a> in some manner. But, as their own words show, they are walking a tightrope to not upset the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a joint statement<\/a> in late January, they wrote they stood \u201cin solidarity with the Venezuelan people\u201d but also claimed that Trump \u201chas shown steadfast and unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people\u201d by, among other actions, imposing sanctions on the Maduro regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Diaz-Balart wrote a letter to Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem<\/a> urging her not to deport Venezuelans without criminal records. Gimenez wrote in another letter about TPS to Noem saying that she should \u201cmake a decision that individually provides a solution to those who contribute to our country and respect the rule of law,\u201d the Herald reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salazar, in response to Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s letter, told the Herald: \u201cMy whole time in Congress, I have worked across the aisle to fight for my Dignity Act, the only bipartisan immigration reform law in Congress that provides real solutions to our immigration crisis.\u201d She has also said she\u2019s reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to advocate on behalf of those fleeing oppressive regimes and political turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet she also attempted to put the blame on Biden, and not Trump, for the predicament Venezuelans, Haitians, Cuban and Nicaraguans are facing, writing on X last month they believed \u201cin Biden\u2019s empty promises.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re glad that Miami\u2019s members of Congress support those migrants, but their apparent fear of crossing Trump makes them look as if they are speaking from both sides of their mouth. As Fern\u00e1ndez wrote, \u201c\u2026we are not measured by loyalty to a party or president but by loyalty to the Constitution and to principles, even when they cost something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Donate to LRTV<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the Miami Herald Editorial Board Mike Fernández, a major political donor and healthcare executive, is not the first person to call on Miami’s Cuban-American politicians in Washington, D.C., to do more to oppose what […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[80,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-14486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"tag-immigration","9":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14486"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14523,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14486\/revisions\/14523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}