A street vendor in Chicago was detained by federal immigration officials after being ticketed by Chicago police for operating without a license. Norma Salazar Perdomo, an immigrant from Ecuador, was selling fruit in the Millennium Park area when she was ticketed. She was later detained by ICE while leaving a courthouse on the West Side.

Concerns About City Collaboration with ICE

The incident has raised fresh concerns about the city’s potential collaboration with federal immigration agents. Advocates have called the arrests and detentions of street vendors ‘heartless’ and have questioned the city’s enforcement of laws against unlicensed vendors.

The city’s recent crackdown on unlicensed vendors has resulted in at least 15 vendors being arrested over the past few months. Videos of some of the incidents have gone viral on social media, including one that shows a police officer escorting a handcuffed vendor and a crying young boy away from Soldier Field.

Advocates have argued that the city’s process for vendors to obtain licenses is ‘extremely burdensome’ and that the city has not done enough to support immigrant families. The city’s immigration committee has proposed an ordinance that would make the guidelines for vendors clearer, but it has yet to be introduced in City Council.

Original reporting: Block Club Chicago — read the source article.