The United States government is in talks to offer immigrant families financial support that would amount to $450,000 per person that was affected by former U.S. President Donald Trump's strict immigration policy.
The money would be used as compensation for parents and children who were separated from each other, which many have argued have caused them lasting psychological trauma. Several agencies are working together on this front, including the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
Immigrant Families
The agencies are considering sending payments that would support immigrant families, said people familiar with the matter, although the current price tags could change. The majority of immigrant families who tried to get into the United States through the Mexico border included a parent and a child. The people argued, however, that many families would more likely receive small payouts depending on their circumstances.
A representative for families who have filed lawsuits, the American Civil Liberties Union, identified about 5,500 children who are believed to have been separated from their families at the border during Trump's presidency.
The United States federal government could use up to $1 billion in sending payments to immigrant families eligible for financial compensation. The affected families were separated from each other under Trump's zero-tolerance policy that began in April 2018. The Republican businessman's executive order was issued without warning to other federal agencies.
Trump's policy made it so that all adults who were trying to illegally enter the United States, including those who had children with them, were referred for prosecution. American authorities then separated the children of those families and placed them in the Department of Health and Human Services' custody, Yahoo News reported.
Authorities enforced the separation with no process on how families would be reunited with each other, as some parents were deported. Later, former President Trump ended his policy with an executive order released on June 20, 2018.
Financial Compensation
The situation comes amid a wide array of lawsuits filed by parents who were affected by Trump's 2018 policy. The lawsuits allege that some of the children who were separated from their families suffered from a range of ailments. The list includes heat exhaustion and malnutrition. The lawsuits also claim that children were kept in freezing cold rooms and were given little medical attention, Market Watch reported.
The majority of the lawsuits claim that children affected by the policy suffered mental health problems from the trauma of months of being separated from their parents while living in harsh conditions. The families are seeking a range of payouts, with the average being about $3.4 million per family, people familiar with the matter said.
Lawyers for the families and the government have told courts in recent months that they had hoped to reach a deal by the end of November. "President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historical moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied, said the deputy director of the ACLU's immigrant rights project, Lee Gelernt, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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