
The New York Post:
US ends payout talks for migrant families separated under Trump border policy
The Biden administration has ceased negotiations about potential payouts to illegal immigrant families separated at the US-Mexico border during the Trump administration after floating payments of up to $450,000 per person.
Sanity prevails!
The Justice Department had held talks aimed at settling lawsuits filed on behalf of families separated under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy in 2018. News that discussions had ended was first reported by CBS News.
“It would be an understatement to say we are disappointed that the Biden administration allowed politics to get in the way of helping the little children deliberately abused by our government,” attorney Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. “We are going back to court. The trauma inflicted on these children and parents at the hands of our very own government is unfathomable. We need to do the right thing.”
Reports of the mooted payouts first emerged in October, when the Wall Street Journal reported the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services were considering them as an option to settle the lawsuits filed by the ACLU.