WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and six Senate Republicans introduced the Judgment Fund Accountability Act last week to bar the Treasury Department from using the Judgment Fund, a Treasury fund used to pay court settlements in lawsuits against the government, to provide payments to migrants who entered the country illegally.
This legislation comes after reports that the administration plans to offer migrants who broke the law to come into the U.S. settlement payments of $450,000 per person.
“The administration should never consider paying illegal migrants $450,000 in taxpayer dollars for crossing the border illegally,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This creates a monetary incentive for migrant families to put their children in harm’s way. It will make the border crisis worse, not better.”
“The crisis at the southern border is worsening by the day, yet the Biden administration is focused on providing illegal immigrants with millions in taxpayer dollars. Reports indicate that the Justice Department has been considering payouts to illegal immigrants amounting to more than four times what the government pays the families of fallen troops when they lose a loved one. This is unacceptable. The American people’s hard-earned money shouldn’t be going towards open border policies,” said Senator Fischer.
The bill was also cosponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
Background
Cassidy recently introduced another bill to block the president’s reported plan to pay $450,000 per person in taxpayer money to illegal immigrants separated from their families at the border when detained. The Judgment Fund has been scrutinized over the last decade for a lack of accountability and transparency, including in 2016 when the Obama administration used it to transfer $1.3 billion in cash to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Treasury Department is not required to report details of payments the fund makes to Congress, nor are they required to make those details public.
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