A potential payout of $1 billion or more could be given to families that were separated during the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive on the matter, reporting, “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.”

Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the parents and children who say the separations under the U.S. government “subjected them to lasting psychological trauma.” Government agencies working to resolve the lawsuits include the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.

The agencies 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 families that crossed illegally into the U.S. from Mexico included one parents and one child the people said. “Many families would likely get smaller payouts, depending on their circumstances, the people said.”

In addition to potential damages payments, the administration has begun trying to locate deported parents and reunite them with their children in the U.S. “The administration has reunited 52 families and is in the process of reuniting about 200 more. The families are being given a three-year grant of parole, a form of temporary humanitarian protection that allows them to live and work legally in the U.S. but doesn’t offer them a path to permanent legal status” reports the WSJ.

Government investigations say in some cases there were no provisions to track and later reunite children, from infants to teenagers, with their families as part of Trump’s so-called zero-tolerance enforcement policy after illegally crossing the border.

Many lawsuits “describe lasting mental-health problems for the children from the trauma of the months without their parents in harsh conditions, including anxiety, a fear of strangers and nightmares. The lawsuits seek a range of payouts, with the average demand being roughly $3.4 million per family, some of the people said.”

The WSJ reports “the discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who have violated the law by crossing the border, the people said.”

“One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said.” One Department of Homeland Security attorney involved “complained on a conference call that the payouts could amount to more than some families of 9/11 victims received.”