Opinion: Now hostile to immigrants, this Marco Rubio is unrecognizable

Three years ago, he was on the side of compassion and law. Now he supports an inhumane U.S. purge of immigrants.



(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador on Feb. 3.
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By Mary Ellen Klas
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2025 at 4:45 AM PDT

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele may have found the best description for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s new approach to dictatorial regimes: a laughing emoji.

After a federal district judge ordered the administration to stop a U.S. flight deporting Venezuelans to his country, Bukele wrote on X, after the flight departed: “Oopsie…Too late.’’ He added the symbol known as “face with tears of joy.”

Rubio reposted it.

For many who have watched Rubio’s career, it was wildly incongruous to see him snubbing a U.S. court over immigrants expelled to a brutal prison in a country ruled by an authoritarian.

Rubio, a lawyer, built his political career talking about being “the son of immigrants and exiles” and condemning the human rights abuses in countries such as Cuba, which his parents left during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

But now, as one of Trump’s top lieutenants, Rubio is not only willing to partner with the aggressive and duplicitous Bukele, he has thrown his full support behind an inhumane purge of immigrants from the United States without due process.

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https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/04/12/opinion-this-marco-rubio-is-unrecognizable/