A stretch of Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown where dozens of immigrant street vendors have operated an informal market for decades was largely desolate Wednesday, a day after federal agents raided the area and arrested multiple people in a chaotic scene.
The street is normally packed with vendors, including many West African immigrants, selling assorted merchandise, much of it knockoff designer goods. But far fewer vendors were on sidewalks on Wednesday morning, and those who remained were mostly selling produce, clothing and other wares.
U.S. Homeland Security officials said nine West African immigrants were arrested in the raid, which they said was “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.” Four other people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal officer and another for allegedly obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway, officials added.
The immigrants swept up in the multiagency operation were previously arrested on a range of charges, including counterfeiting, robbery, burglary, domestic violence, assaulting law enforcement and drug possession, according to the Department of Homeland Security. City officials said the NYPD was not involved in the raid and does not cooperate with federal authorities on civil immigration enforcement.
Among those arrested was Aboubakar Diakite, who was previously arrested for counterfeiting, according to DHS. Diakite is a Mauritanian immigrant who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years and sold phone cases on Canal Street, said Awa Ngam, a fellow vendor who was selling sweaters on Wednesday.
“Do you understand what these people are doing to the mothers and fathers of this country, to the kids?” Ngam said. “Everybody they arrested has the chance of having a whole family behind them, and they’re ripping it apart.”
NYPD officers walk on Canal Street on Oct. 22, 2025.
Mohamed Toure, a Mauritanian immigrant hanging out with Canal Street vendors Wednesday, said the agents in the raid appeared to target only Black people.
“They come only for the Africans,” he said. “If you want to do something, do it for everybody. Check everybody.”
Several vendors and bystanders, including Ngam and Toure, said federal agents requested their IDs and questioned them before moving on. During the afternoon raid, Gothamist reporters witnessed agents questioning at least one man whom they later released after he showed identification.
“People are terrified,” said Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group. “Vendors are for the most part not going to be going out to work today because they’re terrified that this will happen again.”
Kaufman-Gutierrez added that vendors were inspired by the spontaneous organizing of people in the street who began protesting the arrests Tuesday. Vendors told her this made them feel safer amid President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, she said.
The nonprofit New York Civil Liberties Union is investigating reports of people being stopped and questioned about their citizenship during the raid “without any particular basis other than [that] they appeared to be Black or Asian or otherwise nonwhite,” supervising attorney Perry Grossman said.
The Legal Aid Society is also investigating reports of “indiscriminate force” and “racial profiling” at the raid, according to Meghna Philip, director of special litigation at the organization.
Grossman added that the federal actions potentially violated the Constitution, including protections against unreasonable searches and racial discrimination. Similar claims were raised in lawsuits by immigrant and labor advocates in California following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the Los Angeles area.
Producer vendors sell their wares on Canal Street near Lafayette Street on Oct. 22, 2025.
More West African migrants began selling counterfeit merchandise along Canal Street in the last few years, amid a surge in migrants to the city, according to Adama Bah, founder and CEO of Afrikana, a local organization aiding Black migrants. The NYPD has ticketed dozens of the vendors in recent years for vending violations, she added.
Many West African migrants have become street vendors because it offers “easy and fast money” that doesn’t require extensive English skills, Bah said. Some Canal Street vendors were skilled tradespeople in their home countries, including carpenters and electricians, she added.
As the raid unfolded, Bah said Afrikana’s office began receiving several frantic phone calls from immigrants along Canal Street. Vendors are now wondering how they will continue supporting themselves financially if they are at risk of immigration enforcement while selling goods on the street, she said, noting some may change where they operate.
“They might just end up going back [to Canal Street] because they don’t have any other options,” Bah said. “They need to feed their families.”
Maimouna Dieye, NYC chapter director of the group African Communities Together, said in a statement the vendors were not going away.
"What is New York without street vendors?" Dieye said. "This cowardly act strikes at the heart of what makes our city iconic. Canal Street is where so many New York stories begin."
Dieye added, "We won’t be pushed into the shadows, and we won’t let this administration gut the richness and spirit that make New York, New York."
This story was updated with additional comment.
