House Republicans are set to roll out a bill later on Thursday to block a reported plan by the Biden administration to pay $450,000 to each undocumented migrant separated under Donald’s Trump’s “zero tolerance” policies.
The Illegal Immigration Payoff Prohibition Act, which will be introduced by Tom McClintock, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, is co-sponsored by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, and 135 other members.
The bill stipulates blocking the attorney general from making any settlement payments to illegal immigrants that directly arise from their violation of immigration laws, including those that criminalise illegal border crossings and ban a migrant from attempting to enter a country illegally at a port of entry.
McClintock, meanwhile, claimed in a statement earlier in the day that under US President Joe Biden, crime “apparently pays very well indeed”.
“Law-abiding, hardworking Americans have seen their purchasing power decimated by Biden’s economic policies while he has surrendered our southern border. Paying illegal immigrants $450,000 apiece as an apology for Trump’s decision to enforce our immigration law adds insult to injury. Congress has the power of the purse, and that’s why we must act today to stop this outrageous plan in its tracks”, McClintock stressed.
The statement came after Biden on Wednesday rejected the report on paying hefty compensation per each separated migrant as “garbage”, adding that “it's not true” and that it’s “not going to happen”.
This followed The Wall Street Journal reporting in late October that the Biden administration is considering hefty compensation for illegal migrants who have allegedly sustained “psychological trauma” as a result of family separation at the US southern border. Some of the payments may exceed those that were allocated to the families of the 9/11 terror attack victims, according to US media reports.
In early February, Biden ordered to establish an inter-agency task force for the "reunification of families" along the southern border, setting a 120-day deadline to submit an initial report.
Shortly after assuming office in January 2021, POTUS began to reverse the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies, halting construction of a border wall, moving to end "harsh and extreme immigration enforcement", and promising to "restore and expand" the asylum system.
In 2018, then-US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Washington had adopted a "zero-tolerance policy" for immigration offences that required prosecution of all illegal entry referrals at the southwest border, including misdemeanours, regardless of whether the migrant adult was with a family unit.