Arlington County taxpayers will pay families up to $2,000 when ICE detains their breadwinner

BS BULLETIN:

Arlington County, Virginia, has approved $50,000 in taxpayer funds to help families whose primary wage earner has been detained by federal immigration authorities.
Families can receive up to $2,000 for expenses including rent, food and utilities, with roughly 25 to 30 households expected to receive assistance.
DHS ripped the move Tuesday night, accusing local politicians of using Americans’ tax dollars to “reward illegal aliens who break the law.”

Arlington County has found a new expense for taxpayers: helping pick up the bills after ICE takes a family’s primary wage earner into custody.

The County Board voted 4-0 at a special Sept. 2 meeting to appropriate $50,000 for the program, which will be administered by the nonprofit Arlington Thrive.

Eligible families can receive as much as $2,000 over the next 10 months to cover basic expenses including housing, food and utilities. The assistance can be distributed through checks or debit cards.

“We stand with our immigrant families, and we will not stop doing so,” County Board Chairman Matt de Ferranti said. “We are valuing the families of those that have been displaced and removed.”

Board Vice Chair Maureen Coffey said emergency assistance was necessary when families suddenly lose their primary source of income.

The program follows a massive federal immigration crackdown in the Washington region.

As The Daily BS previously reported, ICE and other federal authorities arrested more than 1,300 illegal immigrants during a two-week operation in Virginia and Maryland. Nearly 400 of those arrested had criminal convictions or pending charges, according to federal officials. The cases included allegations or convictions involving murder, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder.

Arlington officials aren’t attempting to stop the federal enforcement operation. The county acknowledges that federal immigration enforcement is Washington’s responsibility and says its police department does not enforce federal immigration law on its own.

Instead, Arlington is addressing what happens after ICE makes the arrest.

Breitbart reported that the county will not require families seeking the assistance to demonstrate that the detained wage earner was legally authorized to work in the United States.

That distinction caught the attention of the Department of Homeland Security Tuesday night.

“You can’t make this up,” DHS said in response to the Arlington program. “Sanctuary politicians are taking Americans’ hard earned tax dollars to reward illegal aliens who break the law.”

“This insanity shows once again who they put first,” the department added.

MY QUICK TAKE

So we’ve reached the next stage of sanctuary politics.

First, Washington refuses to enforce the immigration laws. Then Trump starts enforcing them. Then local Democrats can’t stop ICE from making the arrests — so taxpayers get handed the consolation prize bill.

Rush used to talk endlessly about the incentives government creates. This one doesn’t require an economics degree: break the immigration laws, get detained by the people enforcing them, and Arlington County may help cover the household expenses.

Meanwhile, the citizen who obeys the law and pays the taxes gets the privilege of funding the whole arrangement.

What a country.