The Biden administration is contemplating paying hundreds of millions of dollars to migrant families that were separated at the southern border during Trump's government a total of $1 billion.
Proposal of Federal Agencies
In a recently published article in National Review, officials from the departments of HHS, Homeland Security, and Justice have proposed paying each individual $450,000, or nearly $1 million per two-person family, to settle claims about the long-term traumatic and psychological effects of being torn apart as a result of former President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance policy.
The payments are in response to challenges brought in the wake of the policy's implementation, which began in April 2020 and ended in June 2020. Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union believes that the Trump Administration separated about 5,500 children from their parents.
Moreover, these children were separated at the border and transported to HHS facilities, while their parents were sent for prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border between the United States and Mexico. Families were unable to be imprisoned throughout the legal processes, which led to the separations, according to a report published in Salon.
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Elements of Lawsuits Filed by Parents
The action comes as federal agencies work through a backlog of cases brought by parents whose children were taken from their care forcefully and reportedly experienced long-term trauma as a consequence of the so-called "zero-tolerance" policy.
Based on the claims, several of the youngsters suffered from a variety of illnesses, including heat exhaustion and hunger, and were held in dangerously cold quarters with insufficient medical care, according to a published report in MSN News.
Many of the complaints detail long-term mental-health issues for the children as a result of the months they were separated from their parents in dangerous circumstances, such as anxiety, a fear of strangers, and nightmares. According to some of the victims, the lawsuits seek a variety of settlements, with the average claim being about $3.4 million per household.
Lawyers Currently Negotiating for Settlement
In a published article in The Wall Street Journal, in terms of a schedule, migrant attorneys have reportedly said in court that they are now discussing settlements with the Biden Administration and hoped to strike an agreement 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 said that President Biden has agreed that the issue of family separation is a moral stain on the country that must be adequately addressed. Not only must that remedy involve substantial monetary compensation, but it must also give the means to stay in the nation.
On the other hand, the strategy had enraged Republican legislators, who maintain that the administration did nothing wrong when it separated children from their parents as a deterrence to families considering illegally entering the U.S. through the borders.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said that the Biden administration's promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already exacerbated the greatest border crisis in history, and a large monetary prize would further exacerbate the situation.
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