Biden Admin May Pay Illegal Immigrant Families Separated at Border $450,000 Per Person
The Biden administration is considering paying immigrant families that were separated at the southern border under the Trump administration around $450,000 a person to settle a series of lawsuits.
The total payout could cost the government more than $1 billion, according to the report in the Wall Street Journal. If the Dems go forward with this plan, the GOP ads hammering them in the midterm write themselves.
According to Yahoo News, one government lawyer threatened to pull his name from the case if the settlement is approved. Senator Chuck Grassley denounced the move saying it was unacceptable.
The Wall Street Journal reported, The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma.
The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift, the people familiar with the matter said.
Most of the families that crossed the border illegally from Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S. included one parent and one child, the people said. Many families would likely get smaller payouts, depending on their circumstances, the people said.
From Yahoo:
The lawsuits claim the separations caused lasting mental-health problems for the children from the trauma of months spent without their parents.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that the lawsuits demand a range of payouts, with the average request being about $3.4 million per family.
Lawyers for the families and the government have told courts that they hope to reach a deal by the end of November.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant-rights project and a lead negotiator on one of the lawsuits, argued that the remedy for the separated families “must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country,” according to the report.
“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” Gelernt noted.
However, some government lawyers see the payouts as excessive for illegal immigrants who broke the law by crossing the border, the report says.
It added that a government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case in protest of the potential settlement offer.
UNACCEPTABLE Report says Biden admin considering payments of 450k per person 2ppl who crossed the border ILLEGALLY Those are taxpayers dollars We should not be paying anything to ppl who break our laws
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 28, 2021
Democrats have lost their minds.
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) October 28, 2021
They actually want to send $450k to illegal immigrants that broke our laws while a crisis rages at our Southern border.
This is INSANE. https://t.co/I82wgiBcoN