Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has criticized the Obama administration's plans to renew diplomatic relations with Cuba, but his sentiments were not shared among millennials and scholars.

Rubio called the new U.S. policy with Cuba the "latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost."

"The President's decision to reward the Castro regime and begin the path toward the normalization of relations with Cuba is inexplicable," added Rubio. "Cuba's record is clear. Just as when President Eisenhower severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, the Castro family still controls the country, the economy and all levers of power."

According to Rubio, the Obama administration's efforts to loosen travel restrictions have benefited the Cuban government. He also claimed Cuba is still a state sponsor of terrorism, comparing the island to Iran, Sudan and Syria.

"[Cuba] continues to actively work with regimes like North Korea to illegally traffic weapons in our hemisphere in violation of several United Nations Security Council Resolutions," said Rubio. "It colludes with America's enemies, near and far, to threaten us and everything we hold dear. But most importantly, the regime's brutal treatment of the Cuban people has continued unabated. Dissidents are harassed, imprisoned and even killed. Access to information is restricted and controlled by the regime."

Rubio said Obama has not only put U.S. national security at risk but he's "letting down the Cuban people, who still yearn to be free."

Data, however, have shown a shift in opinion on whether the U.S. should keep or lift the embargo against Cuba. Florida International University's (FIU) Cuban Research Institute (CRI) had published its "2014 FIU Cuba Poll: How Cuban Americans in Miami View U.S. Policies Toward Cuba" earlier this year. The survey has been used to track the attitudes of the "U.S. trade embargo of Cuba, re-establishing diplomatic relations, negotiating with the Cuban government, supporting human rights on the island, traveling and sending remittances to family members still in Cuba" and more.

The CRI survey found millennials, namely Cuban Americans born after 1994, were more likely than older age groups to oppose the continuation of the embargo, in favor of unrestricted travel and renewed diplomatic relations.

"As these later immigrant waves increase their weight within the Cuban-American community, as well as the numbers of those born in the United States increase relative to those born abroad, swift demographic changes are reshaping Cuban-American attitudes regarding U.S. policy toward Cuba," wrote Dr. Jorge Duany, CIR director.

The survey, which polled 1,000 Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade County over the age of 18, found that an overall 52 percent of respondents opposed the embargo of Cuba's continuation while 48 percent were in favor. Within the 18-to-29-year-old group, 62 percent of respondents opposed the embargo's continuation while 8 percent was in favor. As the age of respondents increase, support of the embargo also grew. In the 30-to-44-year-old and 45-to-64-year-old groups, support of the embargo's continuation increased to 45 percent while 55 percent of respondents were in opposition. The 65-and-older group showed the highest support of the embargo at 60 percent while 40 percent opposed it.

"The increase in the opposition to the embargo continues a trend fueled not only by an ideological shift among exiles frustrated with the inability of the embargo to bring about the desired changes on the island," wrote FIU Profs. Guillermo Grenier and Hugh Gladwin, the pollsters of the CRI survey. "It is also the result of the profound shift in the demographic composition of the Cuban origin population in the Miami area. More than a third of all Cuban Americans living in Miami today have arrived since 1995. In our survey, these respondents are most likely to oppose a continuation of the embargo."

Support of renewing diplomatic relations with Cuba was high among millennials with 88 percent, compared to 12 percent opposed. Support for renewed diplomacy gradually decreased among the older age groups. With 78 percent, the 30-to-44-year olds support renewed relations with Cuba while 22 percent opposed. The 45-to-64-year olds, with 68 percent, support reestablishing relations and 32 percent in opposition. The 65-and-older age group showed the highest opposition rate of renewing relations with Cuba at 59 percent while 41 percent were in favor.

Millennials also showed the highest support for unrestricted travel at 89 percent while Cuban Americans over the age of 65 showed the most opposition at 55 percent. Young Cuban Americans want Cuba removed as a "state sponsor of terrorism" while the other age groups believed the label should maintain.

Rubio, at 43 years old, will be the chairman of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee and vowed to "make every effort to block this dangerous and desperate attempt by the President to burnish his legacy at the Cuban people's expense."

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