Within the aftermath of a high-profile ICE raid on Chinatown distributors Tuesday, the hustle and bustle round road distributors on Canal and Broadway was absent on Wednesday afternoon.
Most West African sellers had been gone, whereas Chinese language aunties used to flaunting laminated catalogs of designer knockoffs had been protecting a low profile. Among the many handful of distributors who remained additional down Canal Wednesday, the grief round buddies who had been caught up within the immigration dragnet the day earlier was palpable.
The Chinatown raid, concentrating on West Africans, was an unprecedented incursion into New York Metropolis — one which got here lower than per week after a smaller-scale raid exterior the Row Resort, a migrant shelter in Midtown that had not beforehand been focused by federal legislation enforcement officers.
Sitting on the nook of Canal and Lafayette, licensed road vendor Awa Ngam scrolled by way of an inventory of the 9 individuals who had been swept up in Tuesday’s crackdown: “I know him — that’s Abu,” she stated, referring to a vendor she stated has been round for 25 years.
“I don’t know why they are doing this,” Ngam continued as she scrolled onto the following few folks. “I know him, too. He’s from my country. He’s from Mauritania, so he’s oppressed. He’s a refugee.”
The Division of Homeland Safety launched new particulars on Wednesday in regards to the chaotic Tuesday afternoon immigration raid by masked brokers concentrating on road distributors on Canal Road. The heavily-militarized raid was met with spontaneous protests, and 4 demonstrators had been detained and held in a single day by the feds, earlier than being launched with out costs.
In a press release, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin referred to as it a “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City, focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”
At the very least 5 of the lads had been in ICE custody in two detention facilities in New Jersey, in accordance ICE’s Detainee Locator.
DHS launched particulars on eight of the 9 folks it arrested, together with 5 males from Senegal, one from Mali and one from Mauritania. The division stated three of the lads had prior arrests for home violence, theft, and assault, recklessly endangering and felony possession of a managed substance, amongst different costs. The assertion made no point out of any new felony costs associated to counterfeiting, the purported cause for the raid.
A spokesperson for the NYPD didn’t instantly return a request for remark in regards to the males’s arrest data, and THE CITY was not capable of corroborate their alleged felony histories.
In response to DHS, two of the opposite males had prior arrests just for counterfeiting, and one had been accused of assaulting an officer in Mexico. For the ultimate two males who had been named, DHS solely talked about civil immigration violations with one in every of them overstaying a vacationer visa the opposite crossing the border after which being launched by authorities underneath Biden.
Not the entire distributors arrested Tuesday had been counterfeit sellers, in keeping with Ngam, who was promoting plain white hoodies on Wednesday, on a nook of Manhattan she stated she’d been at for greater than a decade. One in every of her buddies, who was arrested yesterday, offered solely cellphone circumstances and different equipment for electronics, she stated.
“My kids love him. I couldn’t find a way to tell them. They called him Uncle Buba — that’s how they called him because he has the phone cases and the little trinkets that they get from him and he always gives it to him,” Ngam stated.
“That’s what she told herself to feel OK,” Ngam continued.
One other vendor, Mor Ndaye, 39, a inexperienced card holder from Senegal, returned Wednesday to Canal Road with a slight limp, after brokers slammed him to the bottom a day earlier. He was detained by federal brokers for quarter-hour and handcuffed earlier than he satisfied them of his authorized authorization to be within the nation.
“I know my little rights,” he stated. “I’m not a fugitive. I’m here. I’m legal. I didn’t do no crime. Check and let me go.” Finally, they checked out his ID and let him go.
The account was much like that of one other video that emerged of the raid, the place a person being handcuffed by brokers shouted “I was born here”particularly at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn earlier than the brokers launched him.
‘Violent’ Protesters Launched With out Costs
4 New Yorkers who participated within the spontaneous protests had been arrested by federal brokers and held in a single day inside 26 Federal Plaza. They had been launched round 1:30 p.m. on Thursday with out costs and declined to talk to reporters as they left the constructing.
Lower than an hour earlier than that, DHS issued a launch calling them “violent rioters” and stated they’d been “arrested for assaulting law and [sic] enforcement.”
An NYPD spokesperson stated it had arrested two folks in the middle of Tuesday’s ICE raid and the protests that instantly adopted, one in every of them for being disorderly and the opposite for blocking visitors. On Tuesday, the division’s Twitter account wrote that the NYPD “had no involvement in the federal operation that took place on Canal Street this afternoon.”
Pedestrians stroll previous distributors alongside Canal Road, Oct. 22, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
In a press release on Wednesday, the non-profit advocacy group Road Vendor Undertaking referred to as out Mayor Eric Adams for opening a door for Tuesday’s crackdown, saying that “You are complicit in yesterday’s raid. How dare you say your administration had ‘no role.’ Just 2 months ago you vetoed a bill to decriminalize street vending. Your NYPD and DSNY agents conduct raids criminalizing street vendors DAILY.”
Whereas road raids have turn into a brand new regular in another U.S. cities throughout the Trump administration, the Canal Road raid was first of its type in New York Metropolis, with dozens of masked federal brokers in tactical gear accompanied by an armored truck patrolling Canal Road for greater than an hour on Tuesday afternoon.
The dramatic show rapidly triggered a spontaneous protest of New Yorkers, many who simply occurred to be passing by after they got here throughout commotion whereas others had been responding to on-line postings in regards to the feds’ incursion. Brokers met protesters with drive, shoving, physique slamming and arresting protesters who bought of their method, whereas one agent threatened a gaggle with a taser.
The federal response rapidly drew widespread condemnation from Democratic elected officers. New York Lawyer Basic Tish James opened a web-based portal to gather complaints about federal brokers conduct.
The raid got here three days after right-wing influencer Savanah Hernandez posted a video of herself on Canal Road, the place she stated “20-30 illegals” had been promoting wares, tagging ICE and telling the company “go check this corner out.”
Canal Road has at all times attracted hordes of vacationers and buyers, many looking for counterfeit and discounted items. Merchandising on the sidewalks of Canal Road has exploded lately, coinciding with the surge of asylum seekers crossing the southern border starting in 2022.
Road merchandising, like supply work, is among the few trades folks can get a foothold in if they’re undocumented or if they’re ready for work authorization by way of the asylum course of. The NYPD has ramped up enforcement on distributors over the previous 12 months underneath Mayor Eric Adams, with now Deputy Mayor for Public Security Kaz Daughtry taking the lead in trying to clamp down on counterfeiters and people and not using a allow.
Daughtry, the New York Instances reported, was additionally coordinating with the Trump administration about immigration enforcement within town’s asylum shelter earlier than Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch objected to that plan.
The town solely points 853 for merchandise sellers, with practically 12,000 on a waitlist vying for one, generally for years and even a long time.
“They are working hard, they are making a dollar — they’re not stealing, they not robbing, they not doing anything,’ said Evelyn Rivera, 54, who had just purchased a $5 plain brown leather wallet from a vendor on Canal Street on Wednesday. “They are being decent people… trying to do better for themselves and for their family.”
However one man, who stated he’d labored on the block for greater than a decade, stated the quiet road Wednesday was an enchancment. He declined to supply his title, fearing blowback.
“It’s kind of refreshing,” he admitted. “I don’t condone it, and I feel bad for saying it,” he stated of the federal raid, however added that in its aftermath, there’s “a little more quality of life.”
Additional down on Canal, close to Baxter Road, 25-year-old road vendor Xiaolong Li stated he had simply discovered about Tuesday’s raid on Wednesday morning, when he observed the absences of the 2 different distributors who normally promote jewellery and sun shades subsequent to him.
Chinatown vendor XiaoLong Li spoke about federal brokers arresting sellers alongside Canal Road, Oct. 22, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“I just learned about all this,” Li stated in Mandarin, including that he had began merchandising luggage from a Chinese language model two years in the past as a grad college pupil. “I think I’m going to take a break for a few days — rest a little bit.”
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