Across Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods, fear of a federal immigration crackdown has emptied the streets
The cyclists arrive at sunrise, rolling through Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods and stopping at tamale carts, elote stands and candy stalls. They buy out every last item — every tamale, every corn cob, every bundle of sweets. Then they load up the food and deliver it to shelters and families in need.
Since the start of a federal immigration crackdown that has led to more than 3,200 arrests in the Chicago metropolitan area, streets and storefronts in the city’s Latino neighborhoods have emptied out. Street vendors, fearing arrest, have been afraid to leave their homes to work. Local restaurants have struggled as customers stay home.
But as fear spread, so did something else — neighbors stepping up for one another and finding creative ways to show up for vendors and restaurant owners. This includes a grassroots effort to organize so-called “buy out” events meant to allow vendors who fear being detained by immigration agents to go home early. Some Chicagoans have pooled money in their neighborhoods or through local organizations while others have simply bought out taco stands while on their way to work or tamale vendors outside their local bars.
In Little Village, Rick Rosales, community organizer with Cycling x Solidarity, helps organize two of these “buy out” rides per week that typically support five street vendors each.
“The vendors are often speechless,” Rosales said. “They’ll say, ‘I have a lot of tamales. You want all of them?’”
Once, after the group bought out a tamale vendor’s cart, that man found them days later to say immigration agents were spotted on his block just hours after. “You saved my life,” Rosales said the man told them.
“This is about food and joy and bike rides,” Rosales said. “But it’s also so incredibly high stakes because of the fear in our communities right now.”
It’s hard to say how many street vendors have been targeted by federal immigration agents, said Maria Orozco, outreach organizer for the Street Vendors Association of Chicago, adding she knows of at least 10 who have been detained.
In September, a tamale vendor was detained while selling outside a Home Depot, according to local advocates. Soon after, federal agents arrested a flower seller in the southwest neighborhood of Archer Heights.
