President Joe Biden’s administration is in talks to shell out nearly $450,000 to illegal immigrants if they separated under a Trump-era practice of splitting families when illegally crossing the U.S. southern border, a person familiar with discussions to settle lawsuits said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the government was considering payments of nearly half a million to each illegal immigrant, totaling well over a billion dollars in payouts from taxpayer money.

For each family, the lawsuit demands an average of approximately $3.4 million per family. “The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

A person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that figure was under consideration but changed, though not dramatically. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.

Republican lawmakers vowed to fight the payouts.

“This is insane,” tweeted Sen. Steve Daines, R–Mont.

Biden wants to pay $450,000 PER PERSON to illegal immigrant families that were separated after illegally crossing the border during the Trump administration.

— ⭐️Amy Tarkanian⭐️ (@MrsT106) October 28, 2021

About 5,500 children were split from their parents under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, under which parents were separated from their children to face criminal prosecution for crossing the border illegally, according to court filings in a federal case in San Diego. Inadequate tracking systems caused many to be apart for an extended time.

Under Biden, they’ll get hundreds of thousands of dollars in free money from legal U.S. taxpayers.

And getting rich off taxpayer money isn’t the only thing these illegal immigrants are demanding. Attorneys for the families are also seeking permanent legal status in the United States even though they entered the U.S. illegally.

“It would be unthinkable to pay damages to a burglar who broke into your home for the ‘psychological trauma’ they endured during the crime. And yet the Biden administration wants to reward migrants who illegally entered our country with up to $450,000 each for just that reason,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R–Ark.

Biden wants to pay illegal immigrants $450,000 for their hardship while breaking our laws.

For perspective, if a service member is killed in action, their next of kin gets an insurance payment of $400,000.

Let that sink in. https://t.co/J3kuhDhyD5

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) October 28, 2021

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

The settlement talks involve several law firms. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing parents in the San Diego case.

The National Immigration Litigation Alliance represents five mothers and their children who were separated for more than two months, including four children who were sent to holding facilities in New York. A federal judge in Arizona denied the government’s bid to dismiss the case last year.

A Justice Department inspector general’s report in January said a “single-minded focus on increasing immigration prosecutions came at the expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact of family unit prosecutions and child separations.”

 

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.