Rubio's record challenging repressive regimes questioned after academics' immigration crackdown
Some experts who have followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s career see a dissonance between his actions now as part of the Trump administration and his advocacy for freedom of expression as a senator.
Marco Rubio has long been a fierce critic of dictatorial leaders who have stifled speech in their countries and crushed opposition. As a senator, he spearheaded legislation and condemned “the ongoing repression of dissent” in his parents’ native Cuba and repeatedly called for “expression not repression” in countries like Venezuela.
But now as secretary of state, he’s at the center of the government’s recent actions to deny visa holders entry into the U.S. or arrest and try to deport people, including a green card holder married to a U.S. citizen. Critics of the administration’s measures and those involved in the cases have said they were targeted because of their speech, their support for Palestinians or their criticism of Trump administration policies.
Rubio dismissed backlash last week over the arrest and attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. “This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with,” Rubio told reporters on March 12. “No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way.”
As secretary of state, Rubio has the right to revoke a green card or a visa under a 1952 immigration law, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt recently told reporters, though legal scholars say the government has to prove why it’s warranted.
Some experts who have followed Rubio’s career see a dissonance between his actions as secretary of state and what he advocated as a senator, especially his intolerance for political repression, undercutting his authority to demand the restoration of democratic freedoms elsewhere.
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