Federal deportation campaign to have chilling effect for Chicago's snow removal companies
The aggressive federal deportation campaign in Chicago could lead to challenges and delays with snow removal, due to the negative impact on landscaping companies and their immigrant workers.
“The people who do summer landscaping do snow removal in winter,” said Alexandra Sossa, CEO of the nonprofit Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, based in Chicago. “They can't work; they are being deported or afraid.”
A record snowfall Nov. 29 marked just the start of coping with winter conditions while short-staffed. Some Chicago landscaping companies that rely on immigrant workers are struggling with labor shortages.
“People who need snow removal will see consequences because workers aren’t doing the services,” Sossa said.
She estimated 150,000 landscapers work in Illinois, along with about 60,000 farm workers in the central part of the state.
This fall, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted landscaping crews working in the wealthy northern suburbs and Chicago’s North Side, among other neighborhoods.
A Patch Landscaping worker was tending a yard in Rogers Park in October when he was detained and whisked away by masked agents in a Jeep.
At least 15 landscapers working between Rogers Park and Zion in Lake County were deported from the end of August to early November, Sossa said. Most were from Mexico, though some were from Colombia and Guatemala.
At Ravenswood-based Asimow Landscaping, nearly one-third of its 25 laborers stopped coming to work this fall due to fear of ICE raids.
“We have had to combine routes and have crews doing 1 1/2 to two times their ordinary work,” owner Larry Asimow said. “Snow work is very stressful. It needs to happen as quickly as possible, and being short staffed just compounds the ordinary stress.”
Asimow, 59, had to step in to plow and shovel to make up for staff shortages. Other landscape company owners he has spoken to have done the same. “I am currently nursing some sore muscles that I have not used in a number of years,” Asimow said.
“All things considered, we made it through last weekend's storm pretty well. Being without our regular foreman and crews means that there are different crews doing properties that are new to them and things are being missed or not done correctly. The first snow is always tricky, but especially when there was so much more snow than we have had to deal with in a long time,” he said.
This fall, ICE agents have also entered farms in central Illinois, even though they are private properties. The impact on agriculture will be felt, Sossa said. “If you don’t have workers to grow the food you’re eating, of course prices have to go up.”
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino and many federal agents left Chicago in November, but about 100 Border Patrol agents remain to augment ICE agents' enforcement.
Sossa warned the deportation campaign will have more knock-on effects. “Evictions are coming. If you’re not going to work because you’re afraid, you can’t pay rent,” she said.
The Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project does advocacy work and outreach in communities. Since 1999, it has conducted more than 145,000 “Know Your Rights” presentations, according to its website.
After ICE raids this fall, “we got five calls a day looking for people missing,” Sossa said. “Their car is gone, towed. Companies are trying to find where workers were sent.”
The deportation campaign has ramped down recently, but as many as 1,000 agents could return in March. That’s four times the roughly 250 agents who were in Chicago this fall.
With the continued presence of ICE, Bovino’s departure doesn’t give much relief, Sossa said. “They said they are leaving and coming back in March. The amount of trauma and damage is something that will live with all of us forever.”
Sossa added that during the COVID-19 pandemic, farm workers and landscapers were called essential workers. “Now they are calling us criminals. But we are hardworking people moving the economy of the state and the U.S.”
The strain during recent months has been difficult for workers, businesses and communities.
Threats of ICE raids resulted in Asimow Landscaping doing less work than normal and earning less revenue. This is “without a doubt” the toughest period, Asimow said, since starting landscaping work in 1994.
“Even more than the impact to our bottom line and our customers' satisfaction has been the psychological and emotional strain on everyone. We, like many small businesses, are in a way a family. Many of our workers have been with us for 20-plus years. Some of their children are now working for us,” Asimow said.
“The stress of having to make the call every day whether or not to put people in danger by having them come to work and then monitoring the actions, locations and sightings of ICE … is incredibly draining,” he said. “These things were inconceivable, up until a couple months ago. Frankly, we are all exhausted and living under this type of stress is taking its toll in many ways.”
Asimow had considered retiring because of the recent challenges with ICE. But his financial adviser said he needs to keep working. Asimow also feels a responsibility to the employees who have supported him for decades. “I would never want to abandon them and leave them to find other work,” he said.