The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) slammed President Joe Biden for claiming reports that his administration is going to pay separated migrant families are “garbage.”
ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero issued a statement responding to an exchange Biden had with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy.
“President Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department as it carefully deliberated and considered the crimes committed against thousands of families separated from their children as an intentional governmental policy,” Romero said.
He added, “But if he follows through on what he said, the president is abandoning a core campaign promise to do justice for the thousands of separated families. We respectfully remind President Biden that he called these actions ‘criminal’ in a debate with then-President Trump, and campaigned on remedying and rectifying the lawlessness of the Trump administration. We call on President Biden to right the wrongs of this national tragedy.”
On Wednesday, Doocy asked Biden, “Do you think that that might incentivize more people to come over illegally?”
The president replied, “That’s not going to happen.”
Biden also claimed the reports are “garbage” and “not true.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week the administration is considering paying migrant families separated under the Trump administration approximately $450,000 per person.
Last month, Michelle Brane, head of the family reunification task force formed by Biden, told “60 Minutes” they have only reunited 52 families.
“We estimate that over 1,000, somewhere between 1,000, 1,500 maybe more remain separated. It’s very hard to know because there’s no record,” Brane explained.
She also told the program “there’s nowhere to go to find out who was separated or not. It really is case-by-case detective work.”
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security said the total number of children taken under the Trump administration amounts to more than 5,500.