On a December day when temperatures dipped below 20 degrees, Street Vendor Project staff walked along a busy commercial street in the Bronx, handing out “know your rights” information to vendors selling fruits and vegetables. Several vendors mentioned they were scared after watching videos of immigration raids across the city.
“We used to go around helping vendors apply for permits so they wouldn’t get fined,” said Eric Nava-Pérez, Street Vendor Project’s Spanish-speaking member organizer. “But now, we’re out here distributing immigration rights information.”
As he checked in with various vendors, he asked them if they’d seen any recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and instructed them on when to use the whistles he was distributing. “Blow the whistles as loud as you can if you see la migra,” he said. “Contact us or stop by our office if you have any questions.”
The membership-based organization for street vendors has been traversing immigrant neighborhoods across the five boroughs more than ever over the past few months. Under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration this year, ICE has made 7,488 arrests in New York. Street vendors have been increasingly targeted.
In late October, 14 people, both immigrants and protesters, were detained by agents in Manhattan’s Chinatown after a conservative influencer posted about a “huge group of African illegal immigrants” selling counterfeit goods. A second large-scale operation in lower Manhattan was thwarted in late November after 200 protesters blocked law enforcement vehicles from leaving their garages.
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