The Wall Street Journal broke the story last week that the Biden administration was “in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation.” With around 940 claims thus far having been filed, the story noted that the potential total payout to illegal alien families could surpass $1 billion, all paid for by American taxpayers.

The notion is outrageous on its face, because rather than being deported, individuals who have willfully broken U.S. law by illegally crossing into the country would be handsomely rewarded for doing so. It’s so outrageous, in fact, that when Fox News’s Peter Doocy questioned Joe Biden about whether it served to further incentivize illegal immigration, the president instead dismissed it as a “garbage report.”

Biden: If you guys keep sending that garbage out? Yeah. But it’s not true.

Doocy: So, this is a garbage report?

Biden: Yeah.

Doocy: Okay. So…

Biden: $450,000 per person? Is that what you’re saying?

Doocy: That was separated from a family member at the border under the last administration.

Biden: That’s not going to happen.

There’s one problem: The story isn’t “garbage.” Just ask the American Civil Liberty Union, which happens to be representing these illegal aliens in question. ACLU President Anthony Romero refuted Biden’s denial, stating, “President Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department as it carefully deliberated and considered the crimes committed against thousands of families separated from their children as an intentional governmental policy.” Ouch. Romero later added, “If we can’t achieve true restitution, we’ll take our case on behalf of our clients to court.”

When questioned about the story, Biden’s Justice Department remained mum, offering only the non-denial statement that it does “not comment on ongoing litigation.”

The most obvious question is this: Just how privy is Biden to what his administration is doing? Regarding the border, no matter how much Biden and his administration may deny it, their clear border policy is open borders where no one is deemed illegal. The play is to expand the Democrat voter base, as the Democrats have sought to smuggle into their partisan $1.75 trillion social spending bill a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens.

The Congressional Budget Office recently released its estimate of the cost of such action, concluding that the price tag would be more than $500 billion over two decades. That’s largely due to the addition of millions of new citizens suddenly ballooning the cost of Social Security, Medicare, and other income-redistribution programs. Democrats want millions of illegals who have not paid federal taxes suddenly being given entitlement to benefits they never contributed to. Is it any wonder so many Americans are rejecting the Democrats due to their increasingly transparent anti-American agenda?

Update: According to Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s just fine with this: “So, if it saves taxpayer dollars and puts the disastrous history of the previous administration’s use of zero tolerance and family separation behind us, the president is perfectly comfortable with the Department of Justice settling with the individuals and families who are currently in litigation with the U.S. government. … The president was — what he was reacting to was the dollar figure that was mentioned.”