What's at stake:
Immigration enforcement in Fresno has left food vendors fearful, forcing changes to their daily routines and making it harder to support their families.
For the first time in 25 years, Miguel Ruiz says his food vending business in Fresno has been deeply disrupted, not by competition or weather, but by the Trump Administration’s recent surge in immigration enforcement.
Ruiz, who also serves as co-president of the Mobile Vendor Association of Fresno, said vendors across the city — from neighborhood corners to the local swap meet — are changing how they work. Many are shifting their hours, avoiding busy areas, or staying home altogether, fearing that being out in public could lead to an encounter with immigration agents.
“In reality, many people are afraid because of the immigration enforcement that’s been happening,” Ruiz said. “They’re at stores, on the streets, looking for people and classifying us as criminals. It’s dangerous for us to be out here.”
The heightened fear follows reports of an uptick in immigration arrests, tied to a federal directive calling for 3,000 arrests per day. While the Trump administration claims to target “dangerous criminal behavior,” they are ‘fast-tracking’ deportations, ending asylum processes and targeting even U.S. citizens and non-criminal immigrants.
While that goal is national, its consequences are felt locally in communities like Fresno, as seen last month when federal agents arrested two men outside an office in downtown Fresno on Father’s Day, without wearing anything that clearly identified them as immigration authorities.
The central San Joaquin Valley, often referred to as the agricultural capital of the nation, produces over 25% of the country’s food supply. The region relies heavily on immigrant labor, particularly in food production, distribution, and small-scale vending — sectors now increasingly disrupted by enforcement activity, which has impacted California’s economy.
Ruiz said the impacts have been immediate: fewer customers, reduced hours, and a drop in sales. Some vendors, who already operate on razor-thin margins, are wondering how they’ll make rent or pay rising bills as food prices continue to climb and the White House tariffs begin to sink in.
“There’s a struggle between needing to earn a living and wanting to stay safe,” Ruiz said. “This is how we survive. This is how we take care of our families.”
How local organizations and policymakers are trying to help
A California bill, SB 635, was introduced in late February, known as the Street Vendor Business Protection Act, aims to reduce harmful immigration enforcement practices that target immigrant vendors.
The bill would prohibit local permit programs from requesting immigration or citizenship status and block immigration authorities from accessing vendor data. It recently passed the state Senate and is now under review in the Assembly.
Ruiz said many vendors feel unprotected and that the food vendor community has been discussing how to defend themselves and respond to growing challenges.
However, fear remains constant, and while a few organizations like Cultiva la Salud are offering support, they can’t meet the need alone and require additional help.
Angélica Ortega, a food systems project manager at Cultiva la Salud, oversees the organization’s mobile food vendor program. Ortega said she began noticing a shift in May when Cultiva la Salud started its seasonal outreach to new food vendors.
Many vendors, Ortega said, appeared more hesitant and guarded than in previous years. This led the team to be more careful, skipping direct questions about contact information or sales locations and instead focusing on building trust by sharing flyers and offering help without pressure.
Among the 30 to 40 rotating participants in the mobile vendor program, Ortega noted a significant decrease in vendor activity due to increased immigration enforcement, with many vendors now selling only on weekends, special events, or not at all, choosing times with more foot traffic and perceived safety.
“If mobile vendors stop selling, we lose a part of what makes our community feel like home,” said Ortega. “These are the people bringing cultural foods to our parks, schools, and events. We take for granted how much vendors contribute every day.”
In April, Cultiva la Salud hosted an event called “Fiesta Friday” at their community kitchen, where vendors could sell food and drinks, and community members could enjoy music, games, and resources from partner groups. The event had been postponed after vendors raised safety concerns.
Now, Ortega said, outdoor events and workshops require extra precautions, with some vendors waiting months before returning. Ortega said many won’t share contact details until they’ve visited a site in person to ensure it feels safe and legitimate.
Ortega noted that vendors’ safety concerns had been growing even before Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias’s comments about potential ICE activity at the Cherry Auction sparked alarm last month.
She described a growing reluctance among vendors to share their usual hours and locations. Instead, many are turning to WhatsApp groups and social media to stay informed about enforcement activity. If they hear about an incident involving another vendor, some may temporarily shut down operations out of caution.
These day-to-day changes, Ortega said, have led to a noticeable drop in sales and mounting financial stress.
Matthew Gore, an environmental health specialist in the Fresno County Department of Health, said Fresno has a notably high number of restaurants and food trucks per capita, which means competition is fierce, making it harder for new vendors to establish themselves.
“People don’t always realize how difficult it is to run a food business with tight margins and a lot of costs that go to labor,” said Gore. “We want to guide immigrants with their questions through opening a restaurant or food truck and encourage their dreams.”
Cultiva la Salud has been encouraging vendors to go through the city’s new licensing process and obtain a sidewalk vending badge ID. The badge reduces the need to carry personal documentation and, according to Ortega, helps vendors feel safer while lowering the risk of fines or harassment.
The sidewalk vending badge is part of a broader effort by city and county officials to streamline the permitting process for mobile food vendors, as part of the city’s new sidewalk vending ordinance.
“Recently, four of the vendors from the mobile association completed the final step—they got their carts built, passed their inspection appointments, they have everything now,” said Ortega. “They’re ready to go, ready to sell, and it just feels like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. They were really proud. We’re proud of them too, and happy to have been there to support them through the process.”
Rising costs are squeezing food vendors
While the new vendor badge program is intended to streamline the process for food vendors, it’s likely to leave many behind, as a significant number don’t meet the requirements to qualify for the ID, according to The Fresno Bee.
Yonatan Weinberg is a small business coordinator who helps food entrepreneurs through F3 Local, a coalition that’s part of the larger F3 (Farms Food Future) Initiative as a food innovation. Weinberg said the coalition recently surveyed food entrepreneurs across the San Joaquin Valley and found that Spanish-speaking respondents were especially concerned about rising costs of ingredients, electricity, and kitchen rentals.
Although his organization didn’t collect direct data on immigration enforcement, Weinberg noted that fear in the current climate is clearly affecting vendors. Many are seeing decreased revenue because they’re hesitant to operate as frequently.
In response, Weinberg said the coalition is working to support shared kitchens and local processing centers, which would help reduce startup costs and create a more stable operating environment for vendors.
Still, Weinberg said, ongoing confusion around licensing and recent cuts to supportive services have only added to the uncertainty. Many vendors are unsure how to move forward, as it’s unclear which programs and resources will remain available in the long term.
Marisa Johnson, an agricultural outreach specialist at F3 Local, who works across five Central Valley counties, said recent immigration enforcement activity has changed how organizations engage with immigrant farmworkers.
Johnson explained that there’s a constant underlying fear among farmworkers that immigration enforcement could appear during harvest. To respect workers’ safety and sense of security, the team takes care not to arrive at farms unannounced or in unfamiliar vehicles.
That fear, she added, has made some workers reluctant to attend public workshops or community events, further isolating them from support and resources.
“Our immigrant community deserves to live dignified lives,” Johnson said. “They’re growing really fresh, nutrition-dense produce and feeding the Central Valley. This is the kind of small-scale, locally rooted farming we should be moving toward because it contributes to a healthier and more just society.”
Know & Go
The public is invited to a fundraiser to help local food vendors and their families affected by immigration enforcement and detention. The event is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, July 31 at Dulce Upfront, 2026 N. Van Ness Blvd., Fresno. More information
