{"id":41684,"date":"2025-11-16T23:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T23:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41684\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T23:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T23:06:08","slug":"nyc-knock-off-vendors-back-with-vengeance-just-weeks-after-dramatic-ice-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41684\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC knock-off vendors back with vengeance just weeks after dramatic ICE raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canal Street in Chinatown is once again awash in a sea of illegal vendors hawking knock-off designer bags, electronics and jewelry less than a month after ICE dramatically cleared the area <\/a>and made arrests.<\/p>\n

The Post caught dozens of the brazen illicit peddlers on video when they were out in full force \u2014 with the holiday season fast approaching \u2014 Friday before NYPD cops descended on them, sending the Manhattan scofflaws fleeing. <\/p>\n

Canal Street\u2019s knock-off-goods market is back up and running \u2014 with a vengeance \u2014 less than a month after a dramatic ICE raid saw multiple arrests of illegal migrants. LP Media for NY Post<\/p>\n

Then Sunday, fewer than two days later, there were as many as 100 of the rogue sellers back at it pushing counterfeit goods laid out on blankets on the sidewalk between Lafayette and Center streets, some attracting long lines of customers looking to get their hands on an imitation Chanel bag or iPhone.<\/p>\n

But while the threat of police and even immigration crackdowns hasn\u2019t been enough to thwart the pesky curbside business, a deep paranoia has taken hold among the sellers since last month\u2019s raids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re paranoid, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d explained a former shoe-hawker named Diango, 56, who says he now acts as a mentor to the younger sellers. \u201cYou go in there and tell them immigration is here, and they\u2019ll disappear. Not run, but disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cthey\u2019re not afraid, they\u2019re working to make a life,\u201d he said. \u201cAll they\u2019re doing is their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diango said the illicit trade has become a much harder way to earn a living than when he was at it nearly 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, you could make $1,000 [a day]. That was in 2007 or 2008,\u201d\u2019 the man said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clean here, it was better qualities,\u201d he added of the merchandise. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s bad-quality stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unknown number of people were arrested on Canal Street last month as part of federal immigration raids. William Farrington<\/p>\n

Diango said some vendors, many of whom are immigrants from Africa and Asia, might not even earn $100 in a full day now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome say they make $1,000 a day. They lying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The vendors\u2019 heightened apprehension was on full display when an NYPD squad car drove by Sunday and fired up its sirens.<\/p>\n

In a matter of seconds, more than a dozen men started frantically folding up tables and gathering their wares in bedsheets and plastic bags and on roller carts before scurrying down the sidewalk or into the Canal Street subway.<\/p>\n

Local shopkeepers complain that the bootleg-goods vendors and the crowds they draw block the sidewalks and make it harder for customers to see their own merchandise. LP Media for NY Post<\/p>\n

But the fear-induced break in the action was short-lived, as the men reclaimed their makeshift storefronts within minutes of law enforcement disappearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come when the cops are not around. You see the cops, and they wait for vendors to get on their spot to catch them,\u201d said a man named Sowmmo, a Canal Street gift-shop worker.<\/p>\n

He said last month\u2019s arrests may have made some of the illegal purveyors think twice but that there\u2019s little authorities can do to put them out of business for good.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing to do about it. They will be here forever unless it happens over and over again,\u201d he said, referring to the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid.<\/p>\n

A Department of Homeland Security rep, asked what ICE plans to do about the rogue vendors especially as the holidays approach, said although the feds \u201cdon\u2019t telegraph future operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

But street vendors, particularly those in the country illegally, should \u201cstay tuned!\u201d the representative told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a clear message for all illegal aliens in the country: LEAVE NOW. If you don\u2019t, we will find you, we will arrest you, and you will never return,\u201d the rep said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage all illegal aliens to use the [Customs and Border Protection] Home app to get $1,000 and a free flight to go home for the holidays,\u201d they said of the agency\u2019s deal to try to entice immigration scofflaws to leave the US.<\/p>\n

Sowmmo said the knock-off sellers can be annoying and mess up his gift shop\u2019s business by standing in front of their goods.<\/p>\n

But sidewalk sale shoppers said they don\u2019t see the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really sad,\u201d said Lisa Laurent, 21, a nursing student originally from S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, who bought a $60 imitation Gucci bag from one of the illicit vendors, said of October\u2019s ICE raids on the marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are here working, they\u2019re not bothering anyone,\u201d she said, pointing out that the city has bigger fish to fry when it comes to crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s worse things happening in the city that they can go after rather than people who are just working.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really breaks my heart how they\u2019re so aggressive,\u201d she said of ICE. \u201cThey make people live with such fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the arrests made during last month\u2019s crackdown involved people protesting ICE\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canal Street in Chinatown is once again awash in a sea of illegal vendors hawking knock-off designer bags,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23983,9098,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-41684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bootlegging","9":"tag-chinatown","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}