TIL Marco Rubio's (R) maternal grandfather immigrated to the US without a visa, and a judge ordered that he be deported, but the order was later changed to allow him to stay.
Rubio's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956, but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. When he fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. in 1962 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported. Immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, the deportation order was not enforced, and Garcia was given a legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Garcia re-applied for permanent resident status in 1966 following passage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, at which point his residency was approved. Rubio enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood.
The embargo and blockade of Cuba and the US's stance on asylum for anyone fleeing communist countries. I'm not sure when the asylum policy was put in place but the sentiment had to be there before or was implemented. "Better dead than red" was common saying from the time and later.
I think I get what you're saying, but as far as I can tell, policy with that sentiment wasn't in place until ~4 years later. This dude was set to be deported as ordered by an immigration judge in Miami, then it was mysteriously overturned without any public explanation. It is unbelievable to me that an immigration judge in Miami in 1962 was not aware of a policy that gave Cubans residency for being here.