In this Tuesday, June 8, 2021, photo, a group of Brazilian migrants walk around a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., seeking asylum in the United States after crossing over from Mexico. The Biden administration says it has identified more than 3,900 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy on illegal crossings. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)
Black Twitter users have questions about an unconfirmed report that the Biden administration is in talks to offer money to immigrant families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration.
Tweets reflect frustration that immigrant families, most of whom crossed into the U.S. illegally, may be compensated while H.R. 40, a proposed, decades-old bill to study reparations for slavery, still has not advanced to a floor vote in Congress.
The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are working to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children separated at the border who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma, the Wall Street Journal reported. They could get $450,000 per person in compensation and close to $1 million per family, people familiar with the matter told WSJ.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border during the Trump administration. That number is based on government data. It’s uncertain how many will come forward but about 940 claims have been filed so far, WSJ reported.
“Their suffering is something they will always live with,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. “It is a deep moral stain on our country. We need to make it right, and this includes not simply any monetary support, but also a path to remain here. This is what is right and fair.”
READ MORE: 100 Facts On Reparations For Native Black Americans
Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for immigrants separated thousands of children, infants to teens, from parents at the border in 2018. Some had no way of tracking or reuniting with their children, according to government investigations. The children were kept in cages and some suffered from heat exhaustion, malnutrition, exposure to the cold and lack of medical attention.
Potentially, the total payout could be $1 billion or more.
“But Black Americans still can’t get Reparations??? I’m really mf confused…” Charrise Lane tweeted.
Yvette Carnell is the co-founder of the #ADOS movement — American Descendants of Slavery — which seeks redress for the injustices visited upon Black people who can trace their ancestry back to slaves on American soil. She tweeted about the H.R. 40 bill, which proposes to study reparations for slavery.
“Yes, no need for a study when paying migrants reparations?! Just cut the check, right? We told y’all the need for a study was just stalling anyway. No group is more studied than #ADOS” tweeted Yvette Carnell @BreakingBrown. Carnell is the co-founder of the #ADOS movement
“…but somehow we’re not worthy of receiving compensation for chattel slavery” Marshall Parson🇺🇸 tweeted
@DCDigga.
North Carolina state Rep. James Clyburn, the Majority Whip and the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been called out publicly for not doing more to promote reparations for slavery on a federal level. He admitted during a town hall meeting earlier in 2021 that he had not heard of the #ADOS movement when he was pressed on his thoughts about reparations.
“But #ados was told by @JimClyburnSC1 that the United States would not do cash payments for reparations?” #ADOS co-founder Antonio Moore tweeted @tonetalks.
“Well, they know we will vote for them anyway,” @LaTigreBlue tweeted.
Reparations “for our own should be on the table first” @ClevMan3 tweeted.
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