The Arlington County Board in Virginia approved a $50,000 taxpayer-funded program last week to provide financial assistance to families whose primary wage earner has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The 4-0 vote, with Board member Susan Cunningham absent, occurred at a special meeting following an ICE operation in the Washington, D.C., area during August that resulted in approximately 1,300 arrests. It is unclear how many of those arrests occurred in Arlington, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that the operation occurred throughout the D.C. Metropolitan Area.
The funds will be distributed by Arlington Thrive, a local nonprofit, over a 10-month period. Eligible families may receive up to $2,000 each to cover basic needs including housing, food, and utilities, with an estimated 25-30 families expected to benefit initially.
Payments may be issued as checks or debit cards. “A lot of these families are unbanked,” said County Manager Mark Schwartz. If those methods are not workable, the organization and county will arrange an alternate option.
Elizabeth Matlock, a staff member in the county manager’s office coordinating the effort, said the funding will be available shortly. Available information indicates that the county will not require families to provide proof that a family member was detained or formal employment records.
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The Arlington County Board set aside $50,000 for grants to support families whose primary wage earner has been detained by ICE. The grants will be distributed by Arlington Thrive. The county board approved the funding after a recent surge in immigration enforcement. #Virginia pic.twitter.com/2wreL8De1R
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) September 8, 2026
“We stand with our immigrant families, and we will not stop doing so,” said board chair Matt de Ferranti. “This investment in our families is about the urgency we have seen in our community in the last month. And we are going to respond with care, and we are going to respond proudly. That’s what this $50,000 is toward with Thrive,” he added in additional remarks.
De Ferranti previously acknowledged that federal law prohibits local governments from interfering with federal immigration operations but said Arlington leaders “will do everything we can within the law to provide support and to protect the safety of all our residents, documented and undocumented.”
The Department of Homeland Security responded by highlighting the absurdity of the program. “You can’t make this up. 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,” DHS posted on social media.
Former acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey said, “Arlington County is putting aside money for presumably people that are not even legal in the country, as opposed to giving it to Arlington County residents or American citizens.” He added that a federal alien harboring statute “makes it illegal to do something that induces or encourages someone to come to the country illegally or to reside in the country illegally, and I think Arlington County has a real problem with that statute.”
