Separated Family Compensation; Did Biden Know?

The Wall Street Journal broke the story, that the Department of Justice was “in talks” to provide compensation to families that were separated at the border.

The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma.

That wasn’t $450,000 per family, but per person, so that a family could receive compensation well in excess of a million dollars. These talks came as a result of suits filed on behalf of some of the separated families.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said.

The total potential payout could be $1 billion or more.

If suits are filed against the government, it’s entirely understandable that there would be discussion within the DoJ about settling the suits, just as would be the case with any other action against the government. Except in this case, there are some distinguishing factors. On the one hand, separating families, particularly taking infants away from mothers, and then “losing” the children because of government incompetence and neglect.

On the other hand, this was an outgrowth of “victims” knowingly engaging in unlawful conduct, taking huge risks with the lives of these children. The fraught politics of unlawful border crossings aside, if parents were prepared to risk the death of their children to come to America, did they not assume the risk of a less-than-humanitarian reception when they were caught by Border Patrol agents? Were they not willing to take the chance that their unlawful border crossing would not go smoothly?

“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant-rights project and a lead negotiator on one of the lawsuits. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”

Is that what President Biden agreed? Not according to Biden.

President Biden says his administration will not financially compensate families who were separated at the border with up to $450,000 in damages, rejecting reports about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments as “garbage.”

Was the ACLU making this up as it went along?

“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. “But if he follows through on what he said, the president is abandoning a core campaign promise to do justice for the thousands of separated families.”

When the president says it’s not going to happen, that it’s “garbage,” it puts the spin of “not fully briefed” into a tailspin. But Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary, “explained” Biden’s statement.

[T]he president is “perfectly comfortable” with the Justice Department “settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the U.S. government.” She deferred further comment to the Justice Department. However, after being pressed by a Fox News reporter, Jean-Pierre said the president’s comments on Wednesday were in reaction to “the dollar figure that you mentioned to him.”

Does this mean that the administration will not compensate anyone who isn’t in litigation or that the administration is willing to pay individuals and families whether the ACLU has taken up their case or not, but not in the amount of $450,000 per person?

After asked [sic] to further elaborate on Biden’s Wednesday comment on the DOJ’s plans to negotiate these payments, Jean-Pierre said the president “believes in the department’s independence.”

“That’s something he has been very clear about,” she said. “The Department of Justice should be independent.”

In a Thursday statement to The Washington Post, Romero confirmed Jean-Pierre’s assessment, saying the Justice Department said “the settlement numbers for separated families were higher than where the settlement could land.”

For anyone who has been involved in a suit against the United States, both this discussion and the numbers might be astounding. The government has no tradition of being sympathetic to sad stories of bad things it does, whether to its own citizens or those who cross the border without authorization. It’s similarly not particularly free with paying out money, the price of toilet seats for battleships notwithstanding. Try winning a Bivens action where the government’s agents engaged in egregious conduct against aninnocent American citizen, a taxpayer, and see how much empathy you get from DoJ.

Then again, snatching children, infants, from the arms of mothers was incomprehensible and disgraceful. Reluctant as I am to introduce the vagary of morality to law, this does qualify as a “moral stain” on a nation, with its manifestly incompetent handling by “losing” children exacerbating the nightmare. But does that mean compensation is the solution, and if so, in what amount?

If this is merely a matter of settling lawsuits the government is poised to lose, then it would be understandable that it comes out of DoJ and Biden might not be involved in either the negotiations or a policy decision of what the appropriate settlement amount should be. But when this leaves the courtroom and becomes a broad policy decision, to compensate separated families whether they’re parties to litigation or not, then somebody ought to fully brief the president as he’s going to be responsible for it, and to the Americans who didn’t received a similar level of empathy from their own government.

16 thoughts on “Separated Family Compensation; Did Biden Know?

  1. Skink

    There’s only one equitable way to do this: every person un the US on December 31, 2021 must receive $450,000. Based on inevitable chicanery and number-messin’, my math increases the population. Equity demands $200T to do the right thing. The money is sitting in retirement accounts, and it won’t hurt to take it because no one really earned that money.

    Begin printing and make it so.

  2. B. McLeod

    This is Blinky’s general tactic for all issues related to the border–take one tack in public, then quietly do something completely different behind the scenes.

    What we are seeing here is the genius Blinky strategy for “redressing root causes.” If the United States gives immigrant families millions of dollars, so they can live like monarchs in their home countries, the need to come to the United States is vitiated. Essentially, paying them to go home, but only for families who prove that they pose an actual threat of immigration by trekking to our borders. Of course, the immigrants’ home countries will also be enriched as they come to have many more millionaires. Some of that will also trickle down to “redress root causes” for people who lack the stamina for the long journey to the United States. The border crisis will be solved, at the cost of mere money that comes from a magic well anyway. It’s a win-win strategy, and probably one of Blinky’s better schemes (though that is not saying a lot).

    1. SHG Post author

      Have you been calling him “Blinky” ever since you were in the second grade together, or is this something new?

      1. B. McLeod

        Usually only when I’m saying one of his ideas is unusually good. People using Google searches for inculpatory statements later on won’t find it, so I won’t have to be accountable for the observation in the Accusing Parlor.

  3. Miles

    So the ACLU has found a cause that conforms to the limits of its woke limitations. Too bad they can sue any country south of the border for driving those poor immigrants to risk their lives and the lives of their family to escape, so it makes complete sense that this is where they believe it best to put their vast donation wealth.

    But are they on a contingent fee or will they get a separate fee award atop their representation of separated immigrant families?

  4. Richard Parker

    I have got it covered. I’m printing 450,000 dollar bills on my printer right now. The bills feature an excellent portrait of Huey Long. At some point in inflation, milk gets very expensive. At the next stage of inflation, milk ceases to exist. At the highest stage of inflation, old people begin to starve.

  5. Paleo

    The president “believes in the (Justice) department’s independence”. Unfortunately, he believes in its independence from transparency to the taxpayers.

    This administration continues somehow to make Trump look competent and open.

    These numbers are ridiculous. I guess this outcome is the result of a negotiation where both parties represent one side. Nobody here interested in the people paying the bills.

    1. SHG Post author

      Nothing about Biden, no matter how bad it is, makes Trump look competent and open. Biden looking bad does not make Trump any better.

      1. B. McLeod

        It may be years before we have history’s judgment as to which of them was worse. They remind me of that episode of the original Star Trek where the transporter accident split Captain Kirk into two, component personalities. One was timid and indecisive, with a lack of focus, and the other was impulsive, aggressive and psychopathic. Neither was capable of functional leadership.

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