White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
SRDTF News
UPDATED 9:28 AM PT – Friday, November 5, 2021
Republicans called out the Biden administration to clarify recent reports alleging White House plans to pay millions of dollars to illegal immigrants.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asserted that Joe Biden’s scheme to pay illegal aliens $450,000 each is likely true despite recent denial by the White House. On Thursday, the senator told reporters Attorney General Merrick Garland must explain if the discussions of such payments took place.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported the Biden administration was considering paying illegal immigrants separated at the border in 2018 “reparations” of up to a million dollars per family. Graham went on to add, Biden may have lied about the existence of those plans.
Meanwhile, the ACLU maintains Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his own Department of Justice. This assumption came after Biden recently called the plan “garbage” and said it’s not going to happen. His remarks came at a press conference on Wednesday when he was confronted by a reporter on the matter.
Biden said it was “not true” that his administration is planning to give cash payments to illegal immigrants.
But a White House spokeswoman and his DHS Secretary CONFIRMED the plans TODAY.
Roll the tape! pic.twitter.com/oXucIYW1t2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 5, 2021
On the other hand, the ACLU maintains that if Biden doesn’t follow through with the alleged plan, he would be “abandoning a core campaign promise to do justice for the thousands of separated families.”
The White House refuted this comment made by Biden himself, who denied his administration would pay any reparations. In a statement Thursday, Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Biden is, in fact, “comfortable” with the idea of paying families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018.
“If it saves taxpayer dollars and puts the disastrous history of the previous administration’s use of zero tolerance and family separation behind us, the President is perfectly comfortable with the Department of Justice settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the United States government,” she stated.
Biden’s officials have blamed the Trump administration for those separations despite the policy being mandated by the Flores Settlement reached in 1997. The White House confirmed such payments may come as a result of an ACLU lawsuit against the U.S.