Amid the Federal immigration crackdown in Chicago, a quiet movement has started to help street vendors. Many vendors have to work to feed their families, even under the threat of arrest by ICE.
The unlikely heroes?
Cyclists.
They arrive at sunrise, biking through different neighborhoods, stopping at every street cart to buy up every tamale, taco and other specialties, and then deliver the food to shelters.
This grassroots effort, called the “buy out’ allows vendors to go home early. Some Chicagoans have pooled money in their neighborhoods or through local organizations to buy-out street vendors.
“The vendors are often speechless,” said one of the organizers. “They’ll say, ‘I have a lot of tamales. You want all of them?’”
Days after a group of cyclists had bought out a tamale vendor’s cart, the man found them days later to say immigration agents were spotted on his block just hours after. “You saved my life,” the man told them.