White House walks back Biden comments on migrant families payments

[MichMan]

"The White House on Thursday walked back President Biden's comments from the day before that the administration would not be paying migrants separated at the border during the last administration $450,000 each, clarifying that the government would be willing to settle out of court with those families.

"If it saves taxpayer dollars and puts the disastrous history of the previous administration’s use of zero tolerance and family separation behind us, the president is perfectly comfortable with the Department of Justice settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the United States government," White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Biden on Wednesday was asked about reports that his administration was contemplating a payment of roughly $450,000 per person for separated migrant parents and children. "That’s not gonna happen," he told reporters when asked about the reported plan.

Jean-Pierre on Thursday asserted Biden was reacting specifically to the $450,000 figure that was mentioned when he was asked about it. "As press accounts to date indicate, DOJ made clear to the plaintiffs that the reported figures are higher than anywhere that a settlement can land," she said.

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Biden on Wednesday if the payments could encourage migrants to flock to the U.S. "If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah," Biden said. "But it’s not true."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a statement suggested Biden had not not briefed on the actions of his own DOJ, and it further argued the president would be turning his back on a core campaign promise to provide a measure of justice for those separated under the Trump policy. "

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/580142-white-house-walks-back-biden-comments-on-migrant-families-payments

[JohnSJ]

1. Clarify WHAT STATEMENTS? This is a total misrepresentation of the facts.

[Me.]

3. Looks Like THe Post I Originally Responded To

has disappeared

[Hav]

4. Yes, another loser issue for Dems whatever will be eventually done

because they try to repair the inhumane actions of Repubs.

[JohnSJ]

10. This is up to the courts, not the Biden administration, and The Hill is intentionally misrepresentin

the facts with that headline

[Me.]

2. Sorry To Say

but this could become a big campaign issue next year. I can just hear it now...millions will become billions to migrants.

[JohnSJ]

8. Sure it will, but the headline, "walking back" is bullshit. It is a clarification, and I am NOT

using wordsmithing

There may be cases in the courts because of our seperation of families

That is not the same thing as a blanket paying off separated families 450 thousand to a 1 million dollars.

If there is liability because of the careless way the undocumented families were separated, that is decided by the courts, not by Joe Biden

[LenaBaby61]

27. "This could become a big campaign issue next year."

It sure could if this is true, because on various African-American social media websites, an increasing number of African-American Dem voters are saying that if Biden/Dems "give all this money to immigrants," then let them vote to save the party. Some not that angry, but even the most loyal AA Dem voters are feeling somewhat overlooked by this administration as it is for various reasons.

Somebody better straighten something out here about this issue, because to upset African-Americans, an almost always loyal voting block, and to have them sit out big elections coming up in the Dem party would be disastrous.

[Me.]

33. Plus This Will Bring Up The Matter Of Repararions

another hot potato

[LenaBaby61]

34. "Plus This Will Bring Up The Matter Of Reparations."

Yes, that is also being bought up a LOT as well: Reparations.

Like I said, if Dems or Biden or whomever don't straighten this out, we Dems will be in a world of hurt come the Mid-terms. Mind you, I spoke with a long time friend of my late Mom's yesterday whose 96, and she takes voting seriously: Her uncle was lynched in Minden Louisiana in 1927 and the white people who did it got away with it. Her mother/his sister died broken, and was never the same again as a young woman, because that was her baby brother. Full of life, kind and intelligent. Anyway, she told me point blank "IF these people who come illegal and Biden and them give them all that money, and our people built this country, I'm not voting for one more Democrat ever. Can I go to their country and ask them for money?" I said no Mama. Cora. "Where my reparations?" I had to get her off the subject by telling her that I'd make her a sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving, and have her son could come pick it up. He's vaxxed because he works for the federal government here in California, and she won't vaccinate. I had her close a few times, but she said no. One guy speaking on one of these political message boards said, and I quote:"IF these people get broke off like that, they (Dems), can kiss my black ass." MOST of the people gave that guy a thumbs on his post, and some of the other comments that followed his were worse, and several of those people said they'll sit out the next big races too. I had to get off that site (I don't belong to it, I've lurked for the last 3 years, & I've never see those people over there this angry since tRump which is why many said they registered to vote in the first place). I won't be going back there soon, because at 60 it scared me and REALLY got me to thinking about us losing the House and Senate, because you know the GQP will impeach Biden/Harris and put a stop to the Jan 6th insurrection commission. This drumbeat from the corporate media who helped put tRump in has yet 2 more "Biden's poll numbers are worse than tRump's ever were" polls is making me sick. He doesn't care, we know, and to have Manchin lecturing Dems about losing Virginia because they've gone too far left. OMFG, Manchin/Sinema are the reason Biden's numbers are so low and sinking--they're blocking him from doing anything, and like we know the mostly corporate media loves those Bad poll news reports for Biden. I feel that IF we lose the House/Senate, this country is done. It's bad enough that the GQP thinks nothing of stealing/gerrymandering more house seats, so they can mess with the Constitution. I didn't dare go over to black twitter to gauge what they were saying about the undocumented immigrant monies.

[Decoy of Fenris]

32. It's already an issue.

My Mom, who has up until very recently (the past few years) been a stoic Democrat, insisted on telling me about the "Half a million dollars Biden was giving immigrants". She was fucking FURIOUS about it, saying she's worked all her life for what wealth she has, and "Those illegals get half a million dollars for walking across an invisible line thanks to Biden".

The optics are fucking horrible and we've already lost any attempt to run damage control on it.

Now, that was the first I'd heard of it, and while I'll never say I'm a political insider, I've always been at least a bit more up to date than my family. So the Right Wing is playing this story already, and they're banging that drum -hard-.

[NCDem47]

5. Doesn't matter if this does or doesn't come to pass in any form...

Repubs will create ads that start this as fact. Hard earned taxpayer dollars going to brown migrants.

Not good. Not good at all.

[Cattledog]

6. Waiting on the "Double talking WH" memes to begin.

[tritsofme]

7. Biden's gut reaction was the right one, they need to make this go away.

It’s like this was dreamed up by some Republican attack ad agency.

[BlueTsunami2018]

9. What exactly does this mean?

That we are going to be giving out six figure payments? Because we’ll lose for sure if that’s the case. You want to piss off every single worker in the country? Give asylum seekers more money than nearly all of us have or will ever have.

Someone help me out here.

[JohnSJ]

11. It means that the courts will decide compensation for any undocumented people who were

illegally separated from their families

[MichMan]

14. Sounds like settlements before it even reaches the court system

[BlueTsunami2018]

15. And that comes out of whose pocket?

Certainly not the people who set the policy up. This has PR disaster written all over it.

[Hav]

12. What is a suitable compensation when you got your kid taken away

and then the state cannot find the kid anymore?

[BlueTsunami2018]

16. I don't know.

I just know how it looks, who will be blamed and who will pay for it both literally and at the polls.

[Mr.Bill]

30. Donald Trump being in prison would be a good start. n/t

[MichMan]

13. It is stuff like this that can make the administration appear to be disorganized

DOJ (or someone) leaks a news story about separated migrant parents & children given very large cash payments. President Biden calls it garbage and states on TV that it absolutely isn't true.

Next day, the administration releases a statement that they are considering implementing that very same thing, with the actual amount given being still unknown. Makes President Biden look like he isn't aware of what is going on which only feeds the RW agitators.

[JohnSJ]

18. No, it is the courts that will decide this

[MichMan]

37. That isn't correct; They are talking about the DOJ making settlements,so the cases don't go to court

One reason may be that the DOJ doesn't want politically to be put in the position of having to argue as the defendant. They want to make the settlements lucrative enough that the attorneys accept the amount for their clients to avoid any trials.

[JohnSJ]

39. Thanks

[Jose Garcia]

20. This has been in the news for several days

Whoever is supposed to be briefing the President is doing a poor job.

[MichMan]

24. Not only that, it was the President himself on TV saying it;not Jen Psaki or some other spokesperson

Very poor optics IMO

[LenaBaby61]

28. GQP'ers have tee's out with "Dementia Joe" on them, with a funny face he made pasted on them.

🙄

[Celerity]

38. This is my take as well. Self-inflicted damage, which will then be exploited by the Rethugs

[JohnSJ]

17. The government faces numerous lawsuits from families separated under the trumps administration

policy, which saw thousands of children taken away from their parents at the border

How is that walking back anything, and why in the hell isn't THAT THE HEADLINE, instead of "walking back something".

In fact this has NOTHING to do with Biden. It will be the courts that decide it

[Tomconroy]

19. Here is a link to the story about what President Biden

said about payments to families:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/11/03/politics/joe-biden-family-border-separation-settlements/index.html#aoh=16360613164684&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s

It was a well reported story and his statement was a mistake. I'm glad it's been corrected. The victims of a Trump campaign of essentially state sponsored kidnapping deserve compensation. They shouldn't be forced to wait through years of litigation to recieve justice.
I mean: What kind of people are we?

[JohnSJ]

21. gotcha journalism. This will be amplified just like Hillary emails, and the media will play it

for everything they can, without any context.

With everything going on, I am getting more and more depressed about 2022

Of course it is the right thing to do, but that is not how it will be framed

[Tomconroy]

22. Some things are worth taking a stand on. Thank you

Mr. President!

[JohnSJ]

26. I agree. All I am saying is I suspect this will be distorted

[LenaBaby61]

35. Taking a stand like this ...

Brings up reparations. How do we deal with that?

IF you'd seen the black message board I checked earlier ..... ALL and I mean ALL of those posters were furious talking reparations. ALL of those topics dealt with Illegals and reparations. Like I told a poster further up, Biden or whomever better explain something to somebody, because if we lose the black vote ... One guy said on that same black message board, "I'll sit out the elections, let the illegals vote for Biden."

[BannonsLiver]

23. I'm the kind that doesn't want another 4 years of Trump.

Your position goes a long way in making that a distinct possibility. No thanks.

[Tomconroy]

25. It's a distinct possibility anyway.

If we aren't going to do justice there is no point to being in power. My President knows this.

[BannonsLiver]

41. The ONLY thing that matters is keeping the crazies away from power.

Few people here have picked up on that, but right now, in our politics, that’s the entire ball game. We don’t have the luxury of doing what you propose. it’s ludicrous.

[BannonsLiver]

42. And yes.

Your president does know this. Which is why he walked it back. He’s not naive. He knows it’s a death sentence and a loser politically as an issue. Thank God someone does.

[LenaBaby61]

36. Even some of my Mexican friends don't like this $ deal. One gal told me yesterday that ...

her people had been here *US* for hundreds of years. WHY should they come over here, low bid us, taking our jobs and just be given money? I'm not going to say the word that she and my other Mexican friends call undocumented immigrants. Problem is that the Dems response looks bad, mixed and muddled and the GQP is having a field day with it now and blaming Biden and calling him senile for something tRump/GQP are responsible for. Dems should explain that tRump kept those people here against their will and abused them and "lost" their children. Did they come here? Yes, but many I read wanted to go back to their home countries with their children. tRump and nazi miller's no tolerance law/rule had 3 year old's in court alone testifying. I never have really heard Dems say that the big fat cats hiring them like Tyson Chicken pay them low wages because they do jobs no one else will do, and I sure wouldn't do those jobs for almost free, with no bathroom breaks and in an unsafe environment where you can lose a hand fooling with chickens on a fast conveyor belt. I told a friend that and he told me You're half black right? I said yes, and he said that half, your people, helped build this country--They've picked enough cotton as it is. They were slaves who were hung and lynched, hello? Well, I couldn't correct him on that, he was right. I was on twitter earlier, but was too scared to go check black twitter. I can just imagine black twitter was lit tonight and will be until or if this situation is cleared up somehow, someway.

[BannonsLiver]

40. Yep

It’s a DU myth that only white people are classist and racist.

[LenaBaby61]

43. "It's a DU myth that only white people are classiest and racist."

I have friends who are Cuban and these friends do NOT like most Mexicans, El salvadorians, Guatemalans, and anybody from Central America (Like I mentioned, my mexican friend said her family has been in the US for hundreds of years, and who are they to come here and take my job). My late aunt (Who was married to my Mom's brother was one of the first black fire captains in the Army) was from Japan. Loved her, but she did not like, get along with or trust some Koreans or Chinese people. People don't like to hear this, but there are people from other countries who come over to the US and look down on black people. My late Mom was a nurse back in the 50's and into the early-80's until she retired, and there were many a patient from another country who didn't want her touching them. Mom said she'd encounter one of these patients, then she'd go to the nurses station and request a white nurse so the patient could receive care, and usually the white nurses were pissed knowing this, but what could they do? They went and assisted the patient etc. Mom was used to having older white patents from the South not wanting her to touch their breakfast plates (Even WITH a lid covering the food no less). She grew up in the South and was used to that from them. As a supervisor in her later years, Mom was the one who black nurses came to who said I need a white nurse, because patient whatever on 7 South wouldn't let me near him/her and started screaming. My Mom would say, yes I heard/saw the buzzer going off. Mom would request a white nurse who'd say what we got. The patient doesn't want nurse X touching him/her. Oh, we got another bigot, Mom would say Yes

Personally, I try to get along with "people, humans" first because I know not everybody is racist from a certain group/race of people or country. One of my late Mom's friends for life was a Republican who grew up wealthy and privileged in Michigan, but they knew each other for over 60 years and my late Mom inherited a very large cash gift, jewelry and other things from her in fact when this woman passed away. Mom was stunned. Now, if someone gives me a reason NOT to be friendly and NOT get along with them (I can most often tell racism when I encounter it), I reply in kind.

[BannonsLiver]

44. One of my best friends in college was a black with light skin tones.

Her dad was Egyptian and her mom was black but light skin tone. My friend was very light skinned. The abuse she took trying to rush and co exist in a traditionally black sorority on campus was pretty brutal, though it ultimately became a positive experience for her.

I’m in agreement with your approach/views on this.

[Klaralven]

29. Assert sovereign immunity

[maxrandb]

31. I know it's probably not possible

but there should be a way to make Donnie Dipshit pay out of his own pocket for this.

Oh, I know, he should be arrested and charged for crimes against humanity and fined enough to cover the cost of any settlement.

[newdayneeded]

45. I've recently posted about this

The repubs constantly hammer us with spending on stupid stuff. Then we turn around and put 100 billion in the BBB bill for immigration, also propose giving 450k to immigrant families for the border crisis. We hand them the club to hit us with. if you haven't seen a lot of this in the news, you will see it very soon in every single repub ad.