Presidents and Congress dont do reparations

OPINION:

President Biden and other folk are pushing for illegal immigrant families to receive reparations for being separated from their relatives in the U.S.

Not 40 acres and a mule per family, mind you. But $450,000 per person per family.

Reparations â€" or however you propose to couch the issue â€" are in the news yet again because Mr. Biden can’t seem to shake himself loose.

Here’s the way the dictionary defines reparations and synonyms of reparations: making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged; “the courts required a convicted offender to make financial reparation to his victim.”

Synonyms: amends, restitution, redress, compensation, recompense, damages, solatium, repayment, atonement, indemnification, indemnity.

So, it takes Democrats with clarity and stiff backbones to present the issue in a perspective even Mr. Biden can understand.

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder explained the issue quite clearly Thursday to The Washington Times’ Seth McLaughlin: “When you are saying to the American people you are going to spend countless billions of dollars for people illegally here and those who have been here struggling to climb up the ladder for years have not been given a chance, then that is going to be a problem.”

Now in case you did not know or did not care, Mr. Wilder is Black. A Black Democrat. A Black Democrat who served as governor and lieutenant governor south of the Mason-Dixon Line. … In Virginia.

The reason we’re discussing reparations for immigrants is because, as I mentioned earlier, Mr. Biden is considering giving payments to illegal immigrants who claim they have been traumatized by family separations they suffered by the Trump administration.

For sure, it seems the Democrats will cite the COVID-19 pandemic for anything that happened post-Biden inauguration â€" unless Trump & Co. are their fall guys.

Immigrants should brace themselves, though. The Democratic Party does not support reparations. They proved that to fellow Democrat and Congressional Black Caucus co-founder John Conyers every year by ignoring his annual legislative pitches for reparations for Black Americans and their enslaved ancestors.

No 40 acres, no mules, no checks, no direct deposits, no amends.

As it is, some folks want illegals to pay for their own ride back to their homelands.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.

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