Sen. Rick Scott went to the Florida Keys over migrant crisis. What he said has to happen

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott traveled to the Florida Keys on Thursday and blamed the Biden administration’s immigration policies for the mass maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti that is affecting the island chain.

The Republican Florida lawmaker and former governor went out on a boat earlier in the day to look at some of the dozens of makeshift migrant boats that have been abandoned on the archipelago’s shoreline for the past two years — with new arrivals increasing since the Christmas holiday stretch.

“We saw one that was basically made out of a tarp,” Scott told reporters at a news briefing at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s helicopter hangar at Florida Keys Marathon International Airport.

“It’s pretty dangerous,” he added.

He stood alongside Keys Sheriff Rick Ramsay, a political ally who praised Scott with being instrumental in pushing Gov. Ron DeSantis to issue an executive order earlier this month activating Florida National Guard air assets, as well as additional state law enforcement officers, to help patrol the Keys for incoming Cuban and Haitian migrants.

Ramsay has repeatedly said that the continual arrivals of migrants are tying up his 203 deputies and taking them away from routine law enforcement duties.

“For us, a small, rural county with limited resources, this is a big deal,” he said in a conversation with reporters after the briefing.

To address the escalating migrant situation, the Biden administration this month announced a shift in policy away from allowing those who arrive on land either across the Southwest border or by boat after crossing the Florida Straits to stay with a date to report to immigration officials and apply for asylum.

Now, migrants from all countries must apply for a parole program from their homes before making the journey to the United States. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday released a statement on Twitter warning Cubans that if they come to the country illegally by sea, they will be sent back and become ineligible for the parole program,

Scott said it’s too early to say if the new policy and the statement will make a difference. He said President Joe Biden should instead pressure the Cuban government to make domestic reforms like holding “free and fair elections,” releasing political prisoners and stop “weaponizing mass migration” — the latter referring to Cuba’s tendency to not prevent those at home who cause problems for the government to leave for the United States.

Scott said federal officials estimate 2% of the Cuban population has left since the latest exodus began about two years ago.

“Don’t legitimize the Castro regime,” he said, referring to the communist government now headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel.

If reform takes place in Cuba, positive changes could follow in other nations like Nicaragua and Venezuela, according to Scott.

“Cuba is key,” he said, “to all political instability in Latin America.”