The Biden administration is considering $450,000 payments to families separated at the border under Trump

The Biden administration is considering compensating immigrant families that were separated at the US border during the Trump administration, with payments of $450,000 per person, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, several agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services have been parties to the settlement discussion, according to people close to the talks who spoke with The Journal.

The sums in discussion are reportedly $1 million payouts per family, or $450,000 per individual, potentially totalling $1 billion, but the figures are subject to change. 

Lawyers representing the families are reportedly requesting at least $3.4 million per family.

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing several families in lawsuits related to the zero-tolerance family separations initiated in 2018 and continued throughout the Trump administration. The organization has identified close to 5,500 children who were separated during the prior administration.

"We need to take away children," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly told staff at the Department of Justice in May 2018. Recently, a task force in the Biden administration reunited 52 families who were separated by the Trump administration out of the over 1,000 they have identified.