WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald on how President Joe Biden’s appeasement and open-border policies have played right into the hands of the dangerous Castro/Díaz-Canel regime in Cuba. For decades, the regime has had a major role in exploiting the United States by stoking instability across Latin America, supporting ruthless dictators such as Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega and driving mass migration as leverage to benefit its illegitimate government and its evil allies in Communist China, Russia and Iran.

Senator Scott also calls on Biden to support several of his bills, the Extending Limits of U.S. Customs Waters Act to help end Biden’s Border crisis by giving Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Coast Guard the tools to stop both illegal migration and drug trafficking off our shores, and his DEMOCRACIA Act to support the Cuban people’s fight for freedom and democracy and punish the illegitimate regime in Cuba and all who support its oppression.

In the op-ed, Senator Rick Scott wrote, “With U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting a 400% increase in migrant encounters in South Florida since October 2022, and mass arrivals of Cubans to the Florida Keys and the islands making up Dry Tortugas National Park, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay and I spoke with Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to press for answers and resources to address the growing crisis.

It is unacceptable that Floridians face yet another devastating consequence of the president’s shameful appeasement of the communist regime in Cuba.

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The Cuban regime has effectively used this playbook for decades.

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But the scope of today’s mass migration from Cuba dwarfs the previous events. Last year, more than 250,000 Cubans illegally migrated to the United States, more than came during the exodus of 1980 and 1994 combined.

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None of this is a coincidence or unexpected. For decades, Cuba has used the appeasement advanced by Democratic presidents to grow its influence and exert its will.

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While the Castro/Díaz-Canel regime is playing chess to grow its influence across our hemisphere, Biden is playing checkers, and America is losing on all fronts. Cuba’s dictatorship is weaponizing mass migration for two reasons: It is terrified of the growing movement for freedom and democracy on the island; and pushing thousands of Cubans off the island and our country helps it get what it wants — more appeasement from the United States, which helps fund its oppression. And Biden is getting nothing in return to help the Cuban people advance their fight for freedom.

Biden first needs to secure our border. An open border benefits Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which engage with cartels to illegally traffic drugs and innocent people, including children, across the U.S. border. An open border is a gift to these regimes and narco-terrorists and it must end now.

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Biden’s broken border has brought this crisis to Florida’s doorstep. Now, the president should listen to my fellow Floridians, especially those who have lived through and escaped the oppression in Cuba and other dictatorships. He should heed our calls to secure the border and end his shameful appeasement agenda that is threatening America’s national security. It is standing in the way of progress and stability in the hemisphere.”

Read the full op-ed in the Miami Herald HERE.

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