President Biden on Wednesday denied that his administration is considering paying $450,000 per person to migrant families who were separated at the border under the Trump administration, calling the reports “garbage.”
Asked if the payments would cause an influx at the border, Mr. Biden bristled, insisting the reports were untrue.
“If you guys keep sending that garbage out, but it’s not true,” he said.
Pressed further about the payments, Mr. Biden responded, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing families who had been separated under former President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, suggested Mr. Biden may have been misinformed.
“President Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department as it carefully deliberated and considered the crimes committed against thousands of families separated from their children as an intentional governmental policy,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in a statement.
“We respectfully remind President Biden that he called these actions ‘criminal’ in a debate with then-President Trump, and campaigned on remedying and rectifying the lawlessness of the Trump administration. We call on President Biden to right the wrongs of this national tragedy,” the statement continued.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services are weighing payments as the administration works to resolve lawsuits claiming the government subjected parents and children to psychological trauma.
Citing sources familiar with the talks, the Journal said most of the families who crossed the border would receive payments, with some families receiving smaller payouts depending upon their circumstances.
Talks about issuing the payments have been going on for months, the Journal reported.
The ACLU has urged the Biden administration to act quickly on the matter.
In a statement issued last week, the ACLU said families subject to separation deserved “resources, care and a commitment that family separations will never happen again.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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