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At any time, Noemi Gongora knows that Border Patrol agents can take her from the streets and send her to El Salvador, who fled over 30 years ago.
But each morning she leaves the small bedroom she rents for $550 a month and goes to work at a street vendor selling Cocteles de Cuilles.
The stand is one of dozens that make up an informal market along busy roads near the border of Koreatown and Pico Union, two densely populated areas with numerous Koreans and Central American immigrants, and is likely to be targeted by federal agents.
Gongola, 64, knows this, and although the $50 she earns a day isn’t worth the risk of deportation, there are still life and payment bills to live on, and most of all, she needs money for the medication she uses to manage cholesterol and diabetes. The drug is beginning to run out.
Every day, thousands of street vendors set up shops on Los Angeles and some of the pavement beyond, making a living, creating a path from poverty, or one day have their own bricks and mortar. These self-constellation are American citizens, legal and illegal immigrants, and are part of LA’s $540 million industry, according to estimates from the Economic Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy research organization.
However, migrant raids taking place throughout the city have caused protests, sporadic violence, and rare deployments of the National Guard and the US Marines, causing economic hardships, forcing them to choose to stay home illegally in the country or endanger the deportation they provide to themselves and their families.
A small number of shoppers bravely confront the ongoing ice attacks and the San Fernando swaps on Saturday in the immigrant community of Pacoima.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“They are afraid to leave their homes,” said Gloria Medina, a grassroots organization based in South Los Angeles, Strategic Concepts in Organisation and Policy Education. [families] I decided to stay home. If you are at risk of going to work and get caught up in an attack, you will have at least one parent in the house where your child can return.
Medina said some families are afraid of falling into debt as they are unable to pay their bills. There are also expenses such as university tuition for children, chronic illness medication, and care for older parents.
She said some parents would send their US-born children to pay utility bills.
“Yes, my teenage sons and daughters can do these errands for their families so we can turn on the gas, turn on the lights and run the water,” Medina said. “But there’s still the fear of making sure they’re not accidentally lured or snatched in an assault.”
Some of these challenges range from workers to door-to-door to sell their products to businesses like Avon and Mary Kay.
Economic Roundtable Daniel Flaming said street vendors will play a key role in the local economy and will buy and sell products from suppliers.
“The reality is that street vendors are marginalized and I think it’s scary to be on the street when the guys at ICE are roaming around looking for people to pick up,” he said. “Their carts are important fairness to them, and it appears they are at risk of being handcuffed and turning the cart into abandoned property.”
In a statement to the Times, Los Angeles Council office, Eunisses Hernandez, a district that includes Koreatown and Pico Integration, said it was working with immigration rights groups and Day’s Labor Center to host “know your rights” workshops, sending them to businesses and providing plants to those who are afraid to leave their homes.
Additionally, her office said she had held other safety events to train people on how to deal with federal agents.
Earlier this year, Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) introduced Senate Bill 635. Prohibits sidewalk vending programs from investigating vendor immigration status. Prohibits Code Enforcement Officers from assisting federal agents.
“Street vendors are crucial to California’s culture and economy, and nationwide they have been a major contributor to their community,” she said in the writing. “More than ever, California needs to come together to strengthen and empower microorganisms throughout the state.”
The child plays on stage with an empty table and sea of benches at the food court at San Fernando Swap Meat.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The bill was also co-hosted by several groups, including Comprehensive Litigation for the City, Los Angeles Humanitarian Immigration Rights Coalition, Community Power Collective, and Public Lawyers.
Since then, individuals and groups have stepped up their efforts to support vendors. Among them are everyone at K-Town, a volunteer-led grassroots organization serving the homeless community in Koratown.
The group has raised tens of thousands of dollars in recent weeks to help vendors with wages, bills and other expenses, helping 80 families with wages, bills and other expenses, according to the group’s Instagram account.
“We’ll be able to buy immigrant vendors so that they can stay safe at home and provide fresh, fulfilling and delicious food to their barren neighbors,” the June 11 post read. “There’s no need to risk being invited just to support your family.”
While immigrant raids have hit families, they also show how people gather to protect the most vulnerable people, said Medina, executive director of Scope.
“We see so much ugability and hatred and how it manifests in our community, so we see unity, joy and mutual aid at the same time,” she said. “That’s the beautiful thing we need to get high.”
At Canoga Park, Jackie Sandoval, 25, about 25 miles from Koreatown, loaded his van with bread and cooking utensils at the end of the business day. Sandoval sells other dishes on Empanadas, Costilla de Puerco (pork ribs), and her sidewalk stands. She said the regular vendors lined up next to her on the block remained at home due to an immigrant raid.
“They don’t sell because they’re scared,” she said.
Lyzzeth Mendoza, a senior organizer at Community Power Collective, who advocates for vendors, said almost all of the 500 vendors her group works for are either undocumented or are trying to become US citizens.
She said about half of the vendors have been out since the immigrants were wiped out. In some areas, even American citizens are at home, hurting the vendor’s business.
“It definitely has a cold effect,” Mendoza said.
The vendors are packed early with San Fernando swap meet.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Maritza Hernandez, 47, has been a vendor for 20 years and sells crepes from stands in the San Fernando Valley.
She said the attack made her angry and felt helpless.
“We’re a simple target,” she wrote in an email.
Mexican national Hernandez said he must help his mother and stepfather, who are also street vendors, pay medical bills. But she worked in the US and helped put her children on the path from poverty. She said one son graduated from Brown, an Ivy League college, and is pursuing a nursing career. The other son is studying at the Los Angeles College of Trade and Technology to become a chef.
“We don’t want to be a burden to the state,” she wrote. “We will contribute, pay taxes, be good citizens, educate ourselves and our children so that they can return to their community tomorrow and contribute.”
Even before the attack, some vendors faced pushbacks in the area they run, with business owners and residents dumping grease into the sewer system and leaving food on the sidewalks, saying they were licensed.
Los Angeles City Councilman Imelda Padilla represents Van Nuis, Panorama City, Lake Balboa and other parts of the valley, and said her office has seen a decline in the number of vendors in the district since the attack.
“They face tough decisions and balance the fear of increasing ice activity with the urgent need to support their loved ones,” she said.
However, not all vendors fear deportation. At MacArthur Park, 52-year-old Manuel Guarchaj was sitting next to a white van selling produce to residents of a nearby apartment last week.
The immigrant attack scared customers, he said.
“I was getting 80-100 people a day,” he said. “I’m probably 40 now. People are afraid.”
Vendor Richard Gomez, 53, packs his tent after a leisurely day selling items at the San Fernando Swap competition on June 21, 2025. “In my opinion, Latino people drive the economy.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
He said he was not afraid if immigration agents caught him and returned to Guatemala to expel him.
“I came to this land by the grace of God,” he said. “And by the same grace as I go home.”
Back to the marketplace, sitting by the edge of Koreatown and Pico integration, Gongola hastily had a customer trend. The sun melted the ice, keeping the sour cream bag cool, the fruits became discolored and the flies began to turn round.
There were few customers in the market. Among them was 45-year-old Brie Monroy. He traveled over an hour from San Bernardino with his mother, nie and ne to visit and support the vendor.
“We didn’t know if they were coming here or not,” she said.
However, Monroy did not stop in Gongola’s position. He was worried that if the client wasn’t there, he would be out of a job without family to help her.
Six years ago, her husband passed away from kidney disease just five months after burying his stepbrother.
“After that, everything fell apart,” she said. “I was sad and cried. I got sick and the three of us once shared and lost our home.”
Without a family, she began working for street vendors to survive. Now, the attack is putting that lifeline at risk along with her health. She has fallen into weeks’ worth of pills to manage her diabetes and cholesterol and is reluctant to go out and get more.
“We haven’t done it for an immigrant raid,” she said.
Short, wearing a blue apron, Gongola used her fingers to wipe her tears and sighed with a loud sigh.
“It’s very difficult,” she said.
A few feet away from her, the woman she works with asked to double-check the orders with her customers. They stopped just as tears came. Gongola excused himself and passed several vendors until Power contacted the customer to complete the sale.
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