Children line up to enter a tent at the Unaccompanied Children’s Shelter in Homestead, Fla., In February 2019 the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of for thousands of immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico Border on October 3, 2019.
Wilfredo Lee / AP
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Wilfredo Lee / AP
Children line up to enter a tent at the Unaccompanied Children’s Shelter in Homestead, Fla., In February 2019 the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of for thousands of immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico Border on October 3, 2019.
Wilfredo Lee / AP
The Justice Department broke up negotiations to award monetary damages to families forced to separate at the border during the Trump administration.
The negotiations, which began in the early months of the Biden administration, are aimed at resolving the claims of migrant families separated under a “zero tolerance” policy while seeking to immigrate to the US to seek asylum. accident and other reasons.
But government officials abruptly pulled the plug on any settlement talks on Thursday, Lee Gelernt, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, and one of the key negotiators told NPR.
Gelernt said the Justice Department did not explain why it left the negotiations.
“We can’t see any reason for this other than the authorities don’t want to use any political capital to help these kids,” Gelernt said in an interview. “History will not judge this decision kindly.”
In a statement, the Justice Department said the parties were unable to reach an agreement, but “we remain committed to interacting with the plaintiffs and bringing justice to the victims of this heinous policy.”
The Controversial immigration policy has been removed during Biden’s first week in office.
In total, the Trump administration has separated more than 5,000 families from coming to the US without a visa. Under the policy, adults entering the United States from the southern border will be prosecuted for illegal entry. Because children could not be housed with adults, young children were placed in separate federal facilities.
Government reports ultimately show that the administration has neither a clear plan nor a allocation of resources to help reunite parents or guardians with their children when it comes to enforcing a zero tolerance policy. . Hundreds of families remain separated, with many others saying they are still suffering the consequences of the separation. More than 100 people have filed claims for money damages from the government, Gelernt said.
Republicans and Democrats have united against the draconian policy, calling it a humanitarian failure. President Biden called it a “moral and national shame.” And the settlement talks went on quietly behind closed doors for several months – until October, when The Wall Street Journal break the story that financial compensation can be as high as $450,000 per person in some cases.
At that point, the negotiations became a political liability for Biden and his administration, who were opposed by Republicans in Washington.
Attorneys representing the families who have been separated have insisted most payments will be much lower, but the story has generated massive outrage among GOP members, who have tried to connect Links the problem to the skyrocketing number of arrests at the southern border. They argued that giving large cash settlements to immigrant families would encourage more illegal immigration.
In the Department of Homeland Security hearing on immigration last month, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he considers the entire concept of compensation as a personal insult.
“As you can imagine, many Americans think it’s a pretty one-sided idea to make huge taxpayer-funded payments to illegal immigrants who broke our laws. me,” Grassley told DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, blaming the Biden administration for the current immigration crisis.
Grassley noted that the families of service members who died in the line of duty get a tax refund of $100,000. “Under what circumstances would you think it would be better for an illegal immigrant to break our laws to get money from the government than the family of a fallen serving member,” he asked.
Biden administration officials and the president himself are asked frequently about settlement negotiations, which look set to become an election year issue in 2022.
Attorneys representing the families say they are deeply disappointed and believe that all victims of the zero-tolerance approach deserve compensation, including financial settlements. They also say that the government could easily spend more money fighting these cases than if it simply reached a solution.
The Committee on Refugee Women condemned the Justice Department’s decision to withdraw from the negotiations.
Katharina Obser, director of the group’s Migration Rights and Justice programme, said: “This move is a profound and shameful betrayal of the government’s responsibility to address its own harms. this cruel book.
“While the United States can never undo what happened, we expect the Biden administration to be well-intentioned with remedial and remedial efforts,” she said, adding that “the cruelty of willfully separating families has caused permanent and unspeakable harm to children and their parents who come to the US border in search of safety.”
Kathryn Hampton, deputy director of the Physicians Program for Human Rights Refugees, also noted the long-term effects of separation on children. Organization has Be recorded psychological harm and trauma many people have endured, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
“Instead of bowing to right-wing ideologies, the Biden administration should pursue justice and accountability for deeply traumatized children and parents who have endured atrocities.” this by the United States government,” Hampton said in a statement.
The Biden administration has said it will continue to identify and reunite families separated under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, the ACLU is negotiating with the authorities on other issues, including the possibility of legal status for separated families. Those negotiations will continue, Gelernt said – but concluding the financial talks will not make them any easier.
