Joe Biden Reaches Out to Cubans as GOP Accuses Him of Recruiting Voters

A new campaign from President Joe Biden's administration could help the Democratic incumbent win Latino voters in November's election.

The U.S. Embassy has partnered with a beloved Cuban TV character for a video series that seeks to help answer common consular questions for the Cuban public.

Pánfilo, a character on a popular comedy series, has been featured in three videos shared by the embassy's social media account this month, and another two are expected to follow. Comedian Luis Silva portrays Pánfilo on Vivir del Cuento, a top-rated program that airs weekly on the government-owned Cubavisión channel.

The collaboration has been seen by some policy experts as a way for the Biden administration to draw support from a key voter bloc. Latinos are the second-fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. electorate. According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 36.2 million Latinos will be eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020.

While the State Department has praised Pánfilo for being "enormously helpful" in informing the Cuban public about visa requirements and legal immigration pathways, the initiative has drawn criticism from Republicans, who think its further proof that Democrats are allowing more immigrants into the country in hope that they will vote for the party once they obtain citizenship.

Gil Guerra, an immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, told The New York Sun, "The campaign can most accurately be described as trying to redirect illegal immigration to legal pathways established by the Biden administration such as the parole program for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, and Venezuelans."

"The Biden administration is attempting to draw a favorable policy contrast on Cuban immigration issues with Trump by reinstating programs like the Cuban Family Reunification Program suspended under the Trump administration," Guerra said.

Newsweek has contacted the Biden campaign for comment via email.

Senator Marco Rubio, a top contender for former President Donald Trump's running mate and the son of Cuban immigrants, told CNN over the weekend that Democrats "want to turn a bunch of illegal immigrants into voters, into citizens, into voters, in the hopes that those people will then turn around and vote for them in future elections, grateful because they will know who let them in."

John Fonte, the director for the Center for American Common Culture at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, also argued that the initiative was "part of [Biden's] broad effort to get as many migrants" as possible into the country.

"This has to be seen in the context of what's been going on since President Biden took over in January 2021," Fonte told the Sun. "Rather than making the long trek," migrants "would get a visa from the U.S. embassy."