President Joe Biden denied reports that his administration was in talks to offer immigrant families separated under the Trump administration $450,000 per person as compensation.
“That’s not going to happen,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday following remarks at the White House.
Biden conceded that reports of such payments could spur further immigration but called the allegation "garbage."
Asked about whether the move might prove to be an incentive to migrants coming to the United States illegally, the president said, “If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah, but it's not true.”
Groups have filed lawsuits on behalf of parents and children who charge that the U.S. government has burdened them with lasting psychological trauma.