An Arlington-based company says workers called out due to exhaustion and concerns over immigration enforcement.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The thick layer of ice currently blanketing Northern Virginia sidewalks is proving difficult to chip away, and a local landscaping crew says the cleanup is being slowed by more than just the freezing temperatures.
As homeowners in Fairfax and Arlington counties try to clear neighborhood streets, a snow removal business reports that their crews are operating at lower capacity. The reason: the labor-intensive job of digging through the thick ice and the fear of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.
“I have other workers, so they are afraid to show up,” said one landscaping owner in Arlington, who combined two separate crews just to meet the demand of his remaining jobs. “They say, ‘Nope, we don’t want to risk ourselves.’ They are scared to come out.”
The resistance to accepting jobs comes as Northern Virginia experienced more federal immigration enforcement within the last year. Since the start of 2025, the presence of ICE arrests has become more evident, with federal agents increasingly targeting community settings and workplaces. Data from the first ten months of 2025 showed approximately 6,700 arrests across the state, a surge that advocates say has created a “chilling effect” on the region’s essential workforce.
In the Arlington area specifically, routine enforcement operations as recently as last February resulted in the apprehension of multiple individuals, further stoking local anxieties.
The landscaping owner, who enlisted his visiting father to help shovel for the first time in his life, says he is missing at least six regular workers who opted out due to immigration enforcement concerns.
He tells WUSA9 the timing is particularly difficult. The heavy snow mixed with ice requires intensive manual labor to clear. Without a full roster of workers, a job that typically takes a morning can now take even longer. They normally would be using a snow blower, but it broke due to the icy mix.
On top of that, other workers called out because the job of shoveling the snow was exhausting. The company cleared 16 homes on Monday with 16 more planned on Tuesday. Their day started at 6 a.m. with no specific end time.
“They said not anymore because they got so tired,” the owner added. “We’ll go until the end of the job.”
For residents like Matthew Wagner of Arlington, the snow impact is visible on the pavement. Wagner, who is busy caring for his 1-month-old daughter, noted that many neighborhood streets remain packed with snow and ice.
“I mean, it’s not going anywhere, so we’re going to be seeing it until March, I’m guessing,” Wagner said.