(USNewsMag.com) – House Judiciary Committee members are seeking information on potentially “egregious” stipulations in a deal the Biden administration reached with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding migrant families separated at the southern border during the Trump administration.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, along with immigration subcommittee Chairman and California Rep. Tom McClintock, have requested documents about the settlement from Attorney General Merrick Garland. The settlement was reached with the ACLU as a result of its lawsuit regarding the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which involved the prosecution of all illegal entries at the border. Before the policy was reversed, it resulted in parents being separated from children.
According to the details of the settlement announced in October, any future separations of migrants would be blocked for eight years. Parents of separated children would be provided with authorization to come to the United States for three years under humanitarian parole, and they would be able to work in the U.S. For up to one year, the families would receive housing aid as well as legal and healthcare aid.
In a statement at the time of the settlement, Garland called the separation of families at the border “shameful.” Garland added that the settlement would “facilitate the reunification of separated families.”
However, according to Jordan and McClintock, the Biden administration is using taxpayer funds to provide services to illegal immigrants because the government in 2018 used “the existing criminal code,” which Congress had enacted, to prosecute illegal aliens that entered the country illegally with their minor children. They stated that because the settlement is in effect for eight years, future administrations are prevented from “taking definitive steps to control the border.”
They also said the settlement allows for a loophole that can be exploited by cartels because it allows an illegal alien to avoid criminal prosecution for crossing the border illegally based on whether or not the illegal alien is traveling with a child.
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