Paying $450,000 to families separated at the border is too much?

What would be the appropriate financial compensation if the government yanked your child from your arms and couldn’t find the child for months or years – or ever?

If that were to happen to you or somebody you care about, would you still think that $450,000 is too much to compensate for the pain and suffering?

Would you still tell yourself or others to suck it up and just deal with the trauma and everything else?

That’s exactly what Republicans are saying about a Wall Street Journal exclusive report that the Biden administration is considering settling multiple lawsuits stemming from Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration enforcement policy that separated thousands of children from their parents.

Republicans say they should get nothing

That practice drew worldwide condemnation and Trump ended it. But not without first separating at least 5,500 children from their parents caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, including some asylum seekers.

It doesn’t matter why those migrants fled their countries, or the psychological trauma to the child, or the fact that the U.S. government lost track of some of them and haven’t reunited all families.

They should get nothing. Zero. Zilch, Republicans say.

“UNACCEPTABLE,” Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa yelled on Twitter. “Report says Biden admin considering payments of 450k per person 2ppl who crossed the border ILLEGALLY Those are taxpayers dollars We should not be paying anything to ppl who break our laws.”

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida chimed in.

“Democrats have lost their minds,” he said. “They actually want to send $450k to illegal immigrants that broke our laws while a crisis rages at our Southern border. This is INSANE.”

Would Grassley, Scott and all the other Republicans screaming bloody hell to any compensation say the same thing if these mostly Central American migrants were, for instance, Jewish fleeing Nazi Germany?

Would the Republicans say the same thing if these migrants separated from their children were, for instance, people from Israel fleeing to save their lives?

Clearly, they view migrants as less than human

They wouldn’t, of course, because not all human beings are created equal. Not even in America, a country founded precisely on those ideals.

These Republicans make it abundantly clear that they view people showing up at the southern border as less than human, people who apparently deserve everything that happens to them – including forcibly taking their children away by the U.S. government.

Settling the more than 900 claims filed over Trump’s family separation policy is complex and could top $1 billion, according to the same Journal reporting.

The Republicans crying foul shouldn’t blame Biden. They should blame their guy, who created this mess in the first place. Instead, expect them to use this human tragedy as just another election tool.

But how about you? What do you think the appropriate compensation should be if the government forcibly takes your child from you?

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. 

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