Biden had a bit of a time at the press conference he held yesterday in Rome. First, he was late, claiming he was “playing with elevators.” Then he made it clear he was picking on reporters from a pre-approved list.
He also tried to evade comment about what he claimed Pope Francis said to him — that he was a good Catholic and should keep receiving Communion seemingly throwing the Pope in the way of the criticism of him from American Catholic bishops.
But that didn’t stop Fox’s Peter Doocy from trying to do his job. If only all the rest had half his persistent nature to get to the bottom of the truth.
“Mr. President, is it true we’re going to give $450,000 to border crossers who are separated?” Doocy shouted at Biden as Biden was leaving the press conference going down the escalator.
Biden didn’t answer. He looked up, scratched his head, and continued on the escalator evading the question altogether.
The U.S. Justice Department is in talks to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to each child and parent who was separated under a Trump-era practice of splitting families at the border, a person familiar with discussions to settle lawsuits said Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the government was considering payments around $450,000 to each person affected. 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.
The discussions continue, and there is no guarantee the two sides will strike agreement.
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. The payments are intended to compensate for the psychological trauma.
Attorneys for the families are also seeking permanent legal status in the United States for those separated under the practice, which a judge halted in June 2018, six days after Trump stopped it amid an international backlash.
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.
“No amount of money can compensate for the amount of pain and suffering these parents and children endured under this unconscionable and unprecedented policy,” said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.
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.”
