The Biden administration is considering $450,000 payments to families separated at the border under Trump

• The Biden administration is close to a deal with families separated under Trump, the WSJ reported.
• Some 940 affected families filed claims, and the ACLU has identified over 5,500 families so far.

The Biden administration is considering compensating immigrant families that were separated at the US border during the Trump administration, with payments of $450,000 per person, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, several agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services have been parties to the settlement discussion, according to people close to the talks who spoke with The Journal.

The sums in discussion are reportedly $1 million payouts per family, or $450,000 per individual, potentially totalling $1 billion, but the figures are subject to change.

Lawyers representing the families are reportedly requesting at least $3.4 million per family.

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing several families in lawsuits related to the zero-tolerance family separations initiated in 2018 and continued throughout the Trump administration. The organization has identified close to 5,500 children who were separated during the prior administration.

"We need to take away children," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly told staff at the Department of Justice in May 2018. Recently, a task force in the Biden administration reunited 52 families who were separated by the Trump administration out of the over 1,000 they have identified.

According to The Journal, around 940 claims have been filed by families included in the lawsuits. Most of the lawsuits allege that the children separated from their parents by immigration agents suffered heat exhaustion, malnutrition, frigid conditions and poor medical attention.

The crux of many of the suits deals with the deep, long-term mental health trauma effects of being separated from their families and being kept in detention facilities.

"President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied," Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU's immigrant-rights project and a negotiator told the Journal. "That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country."

The report added that the lawyers hope to reach a deal by the end of November.

Insider reached out to the DHS, the DOJ and the White House for comment.