Marco Rubio, Other Latino Republicans Blasted in New Florida Campaign: "Deporting Good Immigrants Back To Dictatorships Is Cruel'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Latino Republicans from Florida continue to be criticized in their state over parts of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Keep Them Honest, a dark-money organization not required to disclose its donors, explained it set up billboards across Florida to draw further attention to the matter.

"Deporting good immigrants back to dictatorships is cruel," reads the ad, which could also be seen on the Miami Herald's website. As well as Rubio, the signs also single out Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez. Some of the billboards and digital ads are in their districts.

Chris Willis, a spokesman for the group, told the Miami Herald that the officials "have the ability to make demands for what we know traditionally these members of Congress have said they stood for," which is "to defend the rights of those who have fled dictatorships and have come to this country seeking the American dream."

The officials, who have historically defended taking in people fleeing authoritarian regimes in the region, had already been targeted earlier this month by the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus with a billboard featuring the word "Traitors" in bold letters alongside the phrases "To Immigrants, To Miami-Dade, To The American Dream" and images of the four.

Abel S. Delgado, president of the Caucus, said that the Republicans "have turned their backs" on the community and that "rather than standing up for our families, they've stood silently while immigrant communities are targeted, detained, and deported." "They've forgotten where they come from but we haven't," he added.

The Trump administration is seeking to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans known as CHNV. Courts have halted the decisions, but the administration's initiative has sown fear in communities who could stand to lose their status at any moment.

Trump has consistently denounced Venezuelan authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro and supported the Venezuelan opposition, but the revocation of TPS marks a shift from his first administration, during which he granted Venezuelans Deferred Enforced Departure status on his last day in office.

In this context, many Venezuelans who made it to Florida and supported Trump say they feel betrayed as they face the prospect of being deported. "You can feel the fear," Daniel Oropeza, a Temporary Protected Status holder whose entire family is facing the possibility of deportation, recently told CNN as he sat on the patio outside the restaurant. "You stop doing things that you normally did before because you don't know for certain if in a couple of weeks you're going to be able to remain in the country."

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center, showed that almost three in four Latinos (72%) now disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, with 54% who do so strongly. Only Black people surveyed had a higher disapproval rate of Trump, with 82%.

The scenario contrasts with the gains made by Trump with the demographic in the last election, swinging 19 points to favor Trump nationally compared with 2020, according to preliminary exit polls. Harris still won a slight majority of the electorate, 52% to 46%, but it was a dramatic decrease over Joe Biden's 33-point margin in 2020.