California lawmaker seeks to protect street vendors’ personal data from ICE

A new bill aims to protect the rights and privacy of California street vendors from being handed over to federal immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Bill 635, the Street Vendor Protection Act, was recently introduced by Democratic Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, who represents Boyle Heights and other Eastside neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

“Street vendors are pivotal to California’s culture and economy, and nationally they have been huge contributors to their communities. Now more than ever, California must come together to uplift and empower micro businesses across the State,” Durazo said in a press release.

The bill will:

• Prevent immigration enforcement agents from accessing street vendor data collected by local governments
• Prohibit local sidewalk vending permitting programs from inquiring into immigration or citizenship status, or requiring invasive fingerprint background checks
• Prohibit local sidewalk vending enforcement officers from using their resources to support federal immigration enforcement

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Inclusive Action for the City, a Boyle Heights-based economic justice group one of the co-sponsors of the bill, said the bill strengthens data privacy and immigration status during the threat of mass deportations from the Trump administration.

“With this step, California can continue to support the street vendors who power our communities,” the group wrote in a press release.

“The street vendors who sustain our neighborhoods and local economies are vulnerable to cruel and unjust immigration enforcement that threatens to separate families, disrupt communities, and endanger lives,” said Doug Smith, vice president of policy and legal strategy at Inclusive Action. “SB 635 will add necessary protections to ensure that California’s local street vending programs remain tools of economic inclusion and opportunity, not fear and division.”

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Community Power Collective (CPC) and Public Counsel are also among the list of co-sponsors.

California lawmakers could consider the bill as early as March 23.