Republicans sent letters to three members of President Biden’s cabinet demanding answers about their agencies being in talks to pay reparations of $450K each to illegal immigrants separated from their families at the border.
Illegal immigrant families suing for $3.4 million per family in reparations from US
A report has emerged that members of the Biden administration are in negotiations under a plan that would give “around $450,000 a person in compensation” to illegal immigrants who were separated from their families at the border under former President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, according to sources “familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Journal, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are in talks to “resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma.”
$450K payout could mean nearly $1 to $3.4 million per family
The lawsuits were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Post reported.
According to the WSJ report, the average demand in each lawsuit adds up to roughly $3.4 million per family.
As a result, the three agencies are negotiating payments that could come closer to $450,000 per person, roughly $1 million a family,” the report noted, specifying that final payment amounts could change, however, with some families likely getting “smaller payouts, depending on their circumstances.”
Republicans demand answers from agency secretaries
The three secretaries whose departments were involved in the negotiations, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, were each sent a letter signed by at least 45 House Republicans over the proposed reparations, Fox reported. The letter was led by Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC).
Political agenda?
Republicans argued that “it’s shocking that our government is considering rewarding illegal activity for purely political reasons.”
“Why is this potential compensation for families separated in 2018 under the previous administration and not those separated between 2008-2016 or since 2021?” the lawmakers said in the letter.
Reparations could incentivize more immigrants to illegally cross border
In the letter, Rep. Murphy and his colleagues warned that paying reparations to illegal immigrants could encourage more migrant crossings.
If the reparations are paid to “thousands of illegal immigrants” by the US, the letter warned, it “will unilaterally incentivize migrants from more than 150 nations across the world to surge our border.”
