An old story goes that a Chinese woman with a permit to enter the United States came ashore at San Francisco. Let's hope it was during the summertime. ("The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."--attributed to Mark Twain.)
The woman had birthed a child on the voyage. The woman had a permit to enter the country, but the child did not. The perplexed immigration officer wired Washington. Should he let the mother in the country, and put the child back on the next slow boat to China? The response from Washington:
"Don't be a damfool."
That story came to mind when all those children were separated from their parents at the southern border of the United States during the last presidential administration. Presidential administrations shouldn't be a damfool. Which should have been the first lesson of the previous administration, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that . . .
When illegal immigrants try to cross a national border, every country has the right, the obligation, to say no. There are legal ways to do these things. So an illegal immigrant and his/her child who arrive at the border should be gathered up, and . . . .
Something other than separated. Let's stipulate that.
But this week the Biden administration has taken "damfool" and doubled down.
We would not have believed this story, except that it was reported by three reporters with The Wall Street Journal. We're fairly competent with the English language, but we still had to read the lede several times before we got it.
The story was datelined WASHINGTON:
"The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation, according to people familiar with the matter, as several agencies work to resolve lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who say the government subjected them to lasting psychological trauma.
"The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift, the people familiar with the matter said. Most of the families that crossed the border illegally from Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S. included one parent and one child, the people said. Many families would likely get smaller payouts, depending on their circumstances, the people said."
We're speechless. Almost.
Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars is more than most Americans have invested in their homes. A million dollars is more than most Americans have invested in their retirement plans. Now those Americans, taxed by the government, are going to pay generational money to people who tried to enter this country by breaking its laws?
Multiply the number of families who might have been affected (by being scooped up by legal authorities as they tried to illegally get into this country) by a million, and The Journal says the total payout could be as much as $1 billion.
A billion dollars might just be a rounding error in this age of trillion-dollar budgets, but ask Americans if they'd like $1 billion in their taxes to be doled out this way. We'd like to see the polling numbers on that.
As far as children who suffered from "a range of ailments," many of us might suggest that they'd get better nutrition and boarding in U.S. custody than on the road from whence they came. But even for those who have legit claims against Border Control or another agency, let them argue it in an American court. In front of a judge in good standing. Such action works for the rest of us.
"President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied," Lee Gelernt told The Journal. He's the deputy director of the ACLU's immigrant-rights project and a lead negotiator on one of the lawsuits. "That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country."
Of course. This country could always use more millionaires.
Again--yet once again--we ask what kind of message this sends to the world about the advantages of storming the American gates. Surely word is already getting out: Come to America, there's a lottery winning to be had. ("The Biden administration's promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history--a huge cash reward will make it even worse."--Sen. Tom Cotton)
And what kind of message does it send to the American voter?
It's a damfool policy idea. It would be damfoolishness if our government followed through with it. And voters in this country might have something to say about it in the elections to come.