Alexandria — To the Editor:
Before we wring our hands too tightly about how many households live in poverty in Northern Virginia, we’d do well to examine poverty’s causes more closely. How many of Fairfax County’s 100,000 individuals living in poverty are in families all of whose members are legally present here? How many do not have jobs because illegal immigrant workers with whom they compete for jobs work harder and/or accept less? How many suffer lower pay because they must compete in a flooded labor market with illegally present workers?
More housing would be affordable with less competition for it because of illegal immigrants bidding up demand. More school funding would be available if schools didn’t have to spend so much on illegal immigrants’ children. The state and local taxes illegal immigrants pay cover only a small fraction of the services they consume. If employers had to compete for legal labor, they might have to offer better health coverage.
A cornucopia of social services should not be the first place we look when keeping in mind those in poverty. Instead, we should look to measures we can take so that they can compete in a fair labor market where they will not need as much of those services.
Dine Drudi
Alexandria