Political consultant Stuart Stevens suggested that the Department of Homeland Security look a little closer to home — perhaps as close as the White House — in its efforts to root out convicted criminals for deportation.
Stevens addressed ICE chief Tom Homan on X, writing Thursday, "Here’s a tip, Tom Homan: Cuban born convicted narco-cartel drug dealer named Orlando Cicilia still in America. He’s not hard to find. He’s Marco Rubio’s brother-in law."
Stevens included a link to a Washington Post report from 2015 when Senator Rubio, now secretary of State, was running for the Republican nomination against Donald Trump.
In an article titled, "The drug-smuggling case that brought anguish to Marco Rubio's family," Post reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia and Scott Higham recounted a pivotal moment from Rubio's life in 1987.
"A teenager named Marco Rubio arrived home from school in West Miami to find his mother in anguish," they wrote. "Earlier that day, federal drug agents raided a house a few miles away that his brother-in-law, Orlando Cicilia, shared with Rubio’s older sister, Barbara."
The article continued that "as the future senator from Florida was finishing high school and preparing to go to college, his brother-in-law's illicit career as a cocaine dealer was exposed in a major trial," which would lead to a lengthy prison sentence.
The reporters added that there was "no evidence that Rubio or his parents were aware of Cicilia’s drug dealing, and Rubio’s sister was not suspected of any crime."
"Perhaps more relevantly Cicilia remained close to Rubio and his family after the arrest," according to Vox.
"It seems that Rubio helped out Cicilia with a letter to the Florida Real Estate Commission when Cicilia was applying for a license in 2002," wrote reporter Matthew Yglesias.
"Under the circumstances, the recommendation from a powerful state legislator likely carried a lot of weight, and Cicilia got his license."
