Florida Republicans urge Biden administration to reject asylum request from Cuban official

Three Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden administration urging that an asylum request by a Cuban official be rejected due to her playing a role in cracking down on protesters in 2021.

Concretely, María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart said that Rosabel Roca Sampedro worked as a prosecutor in the city of Camagüey during the protests, and requested prison sentences for Cubans who protested against the communist government.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the lawmakers specified that she was "directly complicit in sending at least four innocent individuals to prison for terms ranging from more than three years to over four years" for their involvement in the protests.

For that reason, they said, The Biden administration "must ensure that those individuals who act on behalf of a cruel regime that actively opposes U.S. interests should not benefit from the extraordinary privilege of U.S. entry. and must be added to the list of specifically sanctioned individuals who are denied entry to the country."

According to Rep. María Elvira Salazar´s office, Roca Sampedro intended to move to Houston after entering the country.

"As congresspeople whose constituents have been personally affected by Cuba's oppresive regime, we write to you to make sure you are aware of the outrage caused by Rosabel Roca Sampedro's attempt to enter the United States and that you will closely examine those seeking to enter the country to make sure they have not violated human rights."

Díaz-Balart, on his end, said in a publication on X that "regime operatives" are a "threat to our national security." "Human rights violators should not be benefited by entering the U.S. while innocent protesters languish in Cuban jails," the lawmaker added, quoting a passage of the letter.