A group of Senate Republicans is seeking to ban President Joe Biden’s administration from carrying out a circulated plan that would provide border crossers, subjected to former President Trump’s “Zero Tolerance Policy,” with $450,000 payouts.
Biden’s Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS), and Health and Human Services (HHS) are working to settle with a number of border crossers represented by the ACLU, who claim they have suffered trauma as a result of the Zero Tolerance policy.
As part of the settlement, attorneys with the DOJ, DHS, and HHS are considering a plan that would give each border crosser about $450,000 and family units about $1 million. The total cost of the payouts would reach $1 billion.
Now, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are seeking to stop the payouts — introducing legislation that would ban the federal government from using American taxpayer money on settlements with illegal aliens.
“While American families are struggling anxiously just to keep pace with President Biden’s inflation, the President now wants to make millionaires out of people who crossed the border illegally,” McConnell said in a statement. “It’s beyond parody. Obviously, this would only exacerbate the Democrats’ border crisis and incentivize the riskiest and most dangerous kinds of illegal immigration.”
Titled the “Protect American Taxpayer Dollars from Illegal Immigration Act,” the legislation would prevent federal funds in legal settlements, including those from the Judgement Fund, from going toward any individual who violated federal immigration law.
“It would be unthinkable to pay damages to a burglar who broke into your home for the ‘psychological trauma’ they endured during the crime,” Cotton said:
And yet the Biden administration wants to reward migrants who illegally entered our country with up to $450,000 each for just that reason. The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse. This is the height of insanity. [Emphasis added]
Sens. James Risch (R-ID), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Lee (R-UT), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), James Lankford (R-OK), John Hoeven (R-ND), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Thune (R-SD), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Todd Young (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) are cosponsoring the legislation.
🚨BREAKING from @foxnews’ @AdamShawNY: Senators Thom Tillis, @SenTomCotton, @JohnCornyn, and @LeaderMcConnell will introduce the Protect American Taxpayer Dollars from Illegal Immigration Act.
Read more about our legislation here ⬇️https://t.co/npISXPi5RH
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) December 2, 2021
As Breitbart News last reported, the payouts have stalled following immense backlash from the American public.
About 63 percent of Americans told CBS News/YouGov pollsters that they are opposed to the payouts, including 64 percent of swing voters, and even 4-in-10 voters who supported Biden against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Polls from Rasmussen Reports and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) have shown similar results where a majority of Americans, including likely swing voters, oppose the payouts.
As Breitbart News has noted, the $450,000 payouts to border crossers would far exceed the compensation provided to the victims of the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks and of the Boston Marathon bombings.
In addition, analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) calculated that the single payout for a border crosser under the proposal could feed 42 American families for an entire year.
Meanwhile, the total cost of the payouts could provide homes to nearly 80,000 homeless Americans for a year or could forgive student loan debt for more than 27,000 American college students and graduates who are struggling to move up the economic ladder.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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