U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) cosponsored legislation to prevent the U.S. Treasury Department from using its Judgment Fund to provide payments to thousands of migrants who entered the country illegally.
The move was done after it was reported the Biden administration is considering paying immigrants $450,000 per person.
“Under any circumstance, rewarding illegal immigrants with cash handouts is unacceptable, let alone in President Biden’s inflation economy when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” Senator Capito said. “We’ve already seen the Biden administration create a border crisis by halting construction of the border wall, ending the effective Remain in Mexico policy, and reversing key asylum restrictions. This mind-boggling new proposal of paying illegal immigrants up to $450,000 each is another backwards move that will further incentivize people to continue breaking our immigration laws in record numbers. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Capito says the payments are in response to lawsuits by these individuals against the government. That figure is more than four times greater than the payment families of our fallen servicemembers receive.
In addition to preventing Judgement Fund dollars from going to illegal immigrants, the bill would enact a series of rules to boost transparency and public disclosure payments from the fund, says Capito.