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.”…