Speaking before Congress yesterday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) warned that the Cuban government may attempt to defuse its domestic problems by exporting large numbers of Cuban malcontents and criminals to the United State, à la the 1980 Mariel boatlift which dumped 125,000 migrants into Florida.
Things get bad [Rubio said], and they say, ‘Look, if you don’t lift sanctions, if you don’t go back to the Obama-era policies, if you don’t get rid of the embargo, it’s inevitable — we’re going to have 50,000 people take to the ocean and head towards the United States.
The senator, who is himself a Cuban-American, urged the administration to make “abundantly clear we will make the encouragement of mass migration towards the United States as a hostile action.”
For video of Rubio’s speech, see his Twitter feed.