Recent Press Releases

Thune: Six-Figure Cash Settlements for Illegal Immigrants are Insulting to Taxpayers

“The American people are not going to tolerate people who work hard in this country to try and take care of their families having their government pay $450,000 per person to people who come here illegally.”

November 2, 2021

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today blasted the Biden administration’s reported plan to give $450,000 settlements to migrants who illegally crossed our country’s southern border and are now suing the United States. Thune noted these payments would be six and a half times the median household income in the United States and warned that they would only encourage more migrants to make the dangerous journey to our southern border and break our country’s laws.

Excerpts of Thune’s remarks below:

“The Biden administration is overseeing the worst border crisis in America's history. Before it's all said and done this year, there'll be over 2 million people, or about 2 million people who will come into this country illegally.

“And now, to make matters worse, the administration is considering paying people who are here illegally, and are suing this country, $450,000 per person… That, if you think about it, is six and a half times the median average income in this country. It is four and a half times what is paid to the families of people who have lost soldiers in combat.”

“This, ladies and gentlemen, is an insult to the hard-working taxpayers in this country.

“The Biden administration's ideas, there's not a day that goes by around here where there isn't a horrible idea that comes out, and we've been dealing with that on a daily basis now for the past several weeks, but this is an idea that just has got to be done away with.

“The American people are not going to tolerate – people who work hard in this country to try and take care of their families – having their government pay $450,000 per person to people who come here illegally. This needs to be stopped in its tracks. And hopefully the administration will come to its senses and see that it is.”