In mid-June 2025, social media users circulated a rumor online claiming that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s grandfather once lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant.

The claim spread on platforms like X, Bluesky and Facebook.

While Rubio’s grandfather, Pedro Víctor García, first entered the United States with proper documents and lived in the country with legal immigration status for about two years, he returned to Cuba and then attempted to reenter without legal authorization in 1962, according to Washington Post writer Manuel Roig-Franzia in an excerpt from his book, “The Rise of Marco Rubio,” in 2012. García continued to live in the United States despite a deportation order — but reports differ on his status until 1967, when he received permanent residency. 

Still, as Snopes cannot yet independently verify this information as of this writing, we cannot rate this claim. Reputable reporting on Rubio’s grandfather cited here appears based on the National Archives’ “Alien Case File” for a “Pedro Garcia,” which matches García’s birth date according to Rubio’s account of his grandfather in his memoir, “An American Son.” We requested a copy of the file and await a response.

The secretary of state’s office did not immediately return an inquiry about Rubio’s grandfather’s immigration status. Rubio reportedly told TIME Magazine in 2013 that he never knew “his grandfather had lived in the U.S. illegally,” but that his grandfather’s story reflects how “complicated” immigration policy is. Rubio also reportedly told the Times in 2016 that while he recognized some people may believe his grandfather’s story conflicts with Rubio’s own views on immigration, “foreign infiltrators like the Islamic State” have become more sophisticated and more dangerous.

“Times have changed,” he told the Times. “Policies have to change. If there’s a conflict there, I think that’s just a reality.”

García’s immigration story

According to Roig-Franzia, Rubio’s grandfather first entered the United States as a legal immigrant in 1956, but returned to Cuba about two years later after failing to find steady work in America. “I had to go back to Cuba to work there because I did not want to be supported by my daughters, my sons-in-law,” García reportedly said.

García took a government job in Cuba recording payments owed by bus and truck drivers, Roig-Franzia’s book said — but as time went on, he began to feel “growing unease” toward the Fidel Castro regime. So, in the summer of 1962, García asked his bosses for a vacation. Then, he boarded Pan American Airlines Flight 2422 bound for Miami, Florida, on Aug. 31, 1962, per Roig-Franzia.

When the plane landed, García did not have proper documents granting entrance to the country. Roig-Franzia published an excerpt from his book in the Washington Post, which detailed García’s reported situation with U.S. immigration authorities (emphasis ours):

In a way Pedro Victor’s treatment was not unlike the present-day experiences of many Mexicans and Central Americans who come to the United States legally but later run afoul of visa laws. The immigration authorities who detained Pedro Victor at the airport would have been well within their rights to send him back to Cuba immediately, but they decided to give him a chance to stay.

Six weeks later he received a summons to appear at an immigration hearing. The summons gave some indication of what was to come, and it wasn’t good.

On October 4, 1962, Pedro Víctor appeared before a special inquiry officer, a kind of immigration judge, named Milton V. Milich. Two vinyl discs recorded that day on an Edison Voicewriter tell the story of a man caught in an immigration no-man’s land.

[…]

Even though many Cubans were entering the country as refugees, the grandfather standing before him cannot be given that designation, Milich says. Because Pedro Victor is trying to come into the country as a returning resident, “he must be considered an immigrant,” Milich says. In the eyes of the United States government, he is not a political exile. He is a man who has broken immigration laws.

Without a refugee status, Pedro Victor has no chance. He is in an immigration catch-22 — unable to get an immigrant visa because the U.S. consulate in Havana is closed and unable to enter the United States legally because he doesn’t have a visa. “The applicant is subject to exclusion . . . as an immigrant not in possession of a valid, unexpired immigrant visa.” At that point, Pedro Victor is officially an undocumented immigrant, a man standing on American soil without permission to be there.

Then comes the crushing blow. Milich orders “that the applicant be excluded and deported from the United States.”

According to Roig-Franzia’s book, however, García “did not leave the country as ordered.”

“Technically he was living in the United States without permission,” Roig-Franzia wrote, adding that back then, officials did not round up those ordered to leave the country and put them on a plane — officials simply expected them to leave on their own accord.

New York Times reporting using records from the National Archives largely corroborated Roig-Franzia’s account. However, according to the Times, someone in the immigration office — “the paperwork does not make clear exactly who or why” — “took pity” on García the same day of his immigration hearing and granted him “parolee” status, “a gray area of the law that meant he would not get a green card but could remain in the United States.” (A green card grants permanent residency in the United States.) 

Thus, while Rubio’s grandfather entered the United States without proper documentation, reports differ on his immigration status post-hearing. 

Then, in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act passed, allowing Cubans who entered the United States since Jan. 1, 1959, to apply for permanent residency after living in the country for two years (later amended to one year). Roig-Franzia reported that García listed Cuban refugee status “since February 1965,” indicating that he may have been granted refugee status retroactively. (The New York Times story does not mention any retroactive refugee status.)

Both Roig-Franzia and the Times reported that García received the official stamp of approval on his permanent residency status on Sept. 13, 1967.

In sum, reporting from legitimate news outlets indicates that Rubio’s grandfather appeared to have entered the United States without permission at one point in his life, but that he may have received a legal status allowing him to remain in the country after an immigration case hearing.

Sources:

Cuban Adjustment Act. 2 Nov. 1966, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-80/pdf/STATUTE-80-Pg1161.pdf. Accessed 16 June 2025.

Emery, David. “Fidel Castro Dead at 90.” Snopes, Snopes.com, 25 Nov. 2016, www.snopes.com/news/2016/11/26/fidel-castro-dead-at-90/. Accessed 16 June 2025.

“Green Card for a Cuban Native or Citizen | USCIS.” Www.uscis.gov, 16 June 2020, www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-a-cuban-native-or-citizen. Accessed 16 June 2025.

Grunwald, Michael. “Immigrant Son | TIME.com.” TIME.com, 7 Feb. 2013, swampland.time.com/2013/02/07/immigrant-son/print/. Accessed 16 June 2025.

“Humanitarian or Significant Public Benefit Parole for Individuals Outside the United States | USCIS.” Www.uscis.gov, 2 May 2023, www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/humanitarian_parole. Accessed 16 June 2025.

National Archives. “Alien Case File for Pedro Garcia.” Archives.gov, catalog.archives.gov/id/5406948. Accessed 16 June 2025.

Peters, Jeremy W. “Marco Rubio’s Policies Might Shut the Door to People like His Grandfather.” The New York Times, 5 Mar. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/us/politics/marco-rubio-immigration-grandfather.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PU8.Ymc1.o1muFJ9chHDt&smid=url-share. Accessed 16 June 2025.

Roig-Franzia, Manuel. “Marco Rubio’s Grandfather Had Difficult Transition to U.S.” The Washington Post, 18 June 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/marco-rubios-grandfather-had-difficult-transition-to-us/2012/06/17/gJQA4535jV_story.html. Accessed 16 June 2025.

Rubio, Marco. An American Son. Penguin, 2012.