$450,000 for illegal immigrants?

News, Opinion

For the thousands of immigrants who entered the southern border illegally in 2018, the Biden administration is considering awarding each as much as $450,000 for separating migrant children from their parents.

During its zero-tolerance approach to border control, the Trump administration stopped everyone crossing the border illegally and children were separated from their parents and put on a separate administrative tracNow, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden is “perfectly comfortable” paying migrant families who crossed illegally and were separated, the New York Post reported.

The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families around $450,000 per person, according to people familiar with the matter, as a way to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The total potential payout could be $1 billion or more, The Journal said, as the American Civil Liberties Union is representing families in one of the lawsuits and has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration.

Around 940 claims against the federal government have so far been filed, The Journal reported. The suits allege the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma, as some families were broken up with no way to track and later reunite them, government investigations found. The lawsuits claim some of the children suffered from heat exhaustion and malnutrition, and were kept in cold rooms and provided little medical attention, The Journal said.
 

While children — who had no say in being brought here illegally by their parents or by smugglers — should have their basic needs met while in government custody, there should be a resounding “no” to the idea of using taxpayer funds to settle for $450,000 a piece.

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