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Arlington County, Virginia, is known for being welcoming. Just across from Washington, D.C., the county is home to many national monuments and tourist attractions and is routinely rated as one of Americas best places to live (as well as one of the most expensive). Unfortunately, that rating seems to have gone to the County Boards head. The Arlington County Board is re-evaluating the possibility of extending taxpayer-funded housing grants to illegal aliens, in defiance of both state law and the wishes of its own citizens who would foot thebill.

Arlington County currently offers housing grants to some low-income renter households, paying a significant portion of their monthly rent with taxpayer funds. Arlington County has historically restricted these grants only to U.S. citizens and lawfully present individuals, as required by Virginia law. The criteria the County sets out are already overly permissive, because as FAIR explains in the introduction of our latest population study some categories of lawfully present individuals, like those with Temporary Protected Status or DACA, are in fact illegal aliens. Restricting aid to lawfully present foreigners isnt enough for radical activist groups like the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC), though. They are now working with the County Attorneys Office to make every illegal alien in this expensive county eligible for housinggrants.

Even the Countys own study on the program shows what a burden paying illegal aliens rent would be. This study notes that only 40 percent of survey respondents, by far the lowest support of any proposal in the study, supported expanding housing grants to any illegal alien living in Arlington County. Adding just 50 new illegal alien families to the program would cost a whopping $421,800 per year according to the study, in addition to more money for existing mixed-status families i.e., households with a mix of illegal aliens and U.S.-born citizens. Arlington residents know that a handout of over $8,400 a year in taxpayer funds per illegal alien household, and the additional costs they impose, are a recipe for attracting social issues and fiscal burdens even if their County Board does not seem to share theirconcerns.

The workarounds to Virginia law that open-borders activists have proposed are also far-fetched. These activists claim that publicly funded need-based grants are not public assistance and therefore usual Virginia restrictions do not apply. Their other proposal is even more telling. The activist group unsurprisingly states that the County should simply give the program funding and administration to a nonprofit like the group itself. FAIR has covered extensively federal funding being handed out to NGOs that support illegal aliens, and this playbook is also repeating itself in counties like Arlington across the country with local taxpayerfunds.

Ironically, the high cost of living in Arlington County is one of the few things insulating this sanctuary county from the worst consequences of illegal immigration in other jurisdictions. Free housing for illegal aliens in New York City and Massachusetts has been a complete disaster for American citizens stuck with massive bills and out-of-control migrant crime. Arlington residents, and all American citizens, deserve better than their money being spent on making life easier for immigrationlawbreakers.

See the rest here:
One of America's Best Places to Live Considering Handouts for Illegals, Despite Resident Opposition | FAIRUS.org - Federation for American Immigration...