Even as their party seeks his resignation, three Miami congressional Republicans last month asked for an assist from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas amid a surge in Cubans heading to Florida.

U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar, all Cuban-Americans, asked Mayorkas to add Cubans stopped at sea to a federal government-run online database listing would-be refugees and immigrants. Their Dec. 2 letter predated the national headlining of the Cuban migration surge when a group of 300 landed at Dry Tortugas National Park on New Year’s Day, temporarily shutting down the remote attraction in the middle of the holiday weekend.