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FIRST ON FOX: A Virginia county is under fire for a new policy providing taxpayer funds in the form of grants to families of illegal immigrants whose breadwinner was detained or deported by ICE.
Arlington County, which sits just across Washington, D.C., is not new to policies critics say interfere with DHS operations, as it previously caused outrage when the chair of the Arlington County Board publicly suggested residents call police to report ICE sightings in January.
“If you look at the alien harboring statute — do you do anything to encourage or induce people to either come illegally or that are illegally here to stay, that could be arguably a violation of the alien harboring statute?” former acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview.
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Arlington Countuy Board of Supervisors (from left to right): Julius D. “JD” Spain, Sr., Susan Cunningham, Takis Karantonis, Board Chair Matt de Ferranti and Vice Chair Maureen Coffey. (Arlington County)
“By giving money to people … the reasonable inference is that these people are also illegal, the money enables them to stay in the country illegally, because they lost their breadwinner,” Fahey said.
He said Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz’s comments to ARLNow that many of the affected families are “unbanked” – or lack access to financial institutions which statutorily require identification to open deposit accounts, is itself a tell.
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Several illegal immigrants are arrested by ICE officers in the D.C. area. (Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security)
“That shows the county knows the money is going to be going to people that are illegally here and it will help them stay. So that’s where I think the Alien Harboring Statute comes into play,” he said, adding the county shows “reckless disregard” for the fact their policies accommodate people in the country illegally.
Arlington will start by setting aside $50,000 to be distributed through “social safety-net” ministry ArlingtonThrive in increments of up to $2,000 per affected family to cover basic needs and utilities, according to reports.
The plan – which passed 4-0 with one boardmember absent – reportedly formed after a major ICE operation in Maryland and Virginia netted 1,328 illegal immigrant arrests, including the case of a man who ran from agents when confronted on near the U.S. Air Force Memorial.
Five regional federal Democrats sounded off afterward, endorsing an ensuing Arlington County Police investigation into the encounter between ICE and Jose Mejia Hernandez, who was reportedly tased and suffered a brain bleed.
Fox News Digital reached out to Arlington County officials, including Chairman Matt de Ferranti, a Democrat from Rock Spring.
“We are valuing the families of those that have been displaced and removed,” he told local press.
In January, de Ferranti warned Arlingtonians that county law prohibits its “public safety professionals” from “interfering with enforcement of federal immigration law,” but that his suggestion to call 911 to report ICE sightings helps officials know agents are present and pivot to “pursu[ing] Arlington County’s law enforcement mission: preventing violence in our community.”
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Federal immigration authorities make an arrest in Arlington, Va., in February. (ICE)
Reckless disregard and inducement are both subsections of the law Fahey referenced – 8 U.S.C. 1324.
Current DHS leadership was similarly critical of Arlington’s move.
“You can’t make this up,” an agency spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“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.”
Fahey said counties cannot make their own immigration laws, and with Arlington in particular, their alleged “inducement” doesn’t just affect their county, as creating safe harbor for illegal immigrants can have ripple effects in adjacent areas like the District of Columbia, cities of Falls Church and Alexandria and Fairfax County.
“A person could go on and commit another crime somewhere outside of Arlington… you can’t have localities and states carving out their own immigration laws or saying immigration laws can’t be enforced [here].”
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A welcome sign is posted in the grass near the intersection of Lee Highway, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway, near the Key Bridge in Rosslyn, Arlington County, Virginia. (Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Arguments against mass deportation on the grounds of family separation are similarly flawed, the former director said, pointing to the fact that when an American citizen is arrested or jailed, they are also physically “separated” from their family.
“Latest dispatch from the People’s Republic of Arlington,” read another.
