https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/11/the-biden-administrations-scandalous-scheme-to-compensate-illegal-immigrants/
The ACLU’s theory, which the Biden administration is indulging, is that the Trump administration’s faithful enforcement of federal law created an actionable tort — theoretically, the infliction of emotional distress — for which the American people should pay lucrative settlements (media reports indicate over $1 billion in toto), even though the harm was actually caused by the illegal conduct of the adult aliens.
That is scandalous. The fact that Biden, for demagogic political purposes, called the Trump administration’s actions “criminal” does not make them so. Congress should be vigorously investigating the Department of Justice’s negotiations. In particular, lawmakers should be exploring what lawyers are involved in them, on both sides, and what attorneys’ fees are anticipated to be paid out of the cozy settlements that result. Even if the law has been enforced more exactingly than, from a humanitarian perspective, the circumstances may have warranted, it cannot be an actionable tort to execute Congress’s laws as written.
