A year after Minneapolis amended rules to help street vendors, barriers remain

During Operation Metro Surge earlier this year, Jeanneth stopped going to work over fears she would be detained by federal immigration officers. She lost her job cleaning houses. Her husband was detained. With three children to provide for, she turned to selling Ecuadorian soups on the streets near Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis. “My only option for feeding my children, buying medicine and doing what I need to do is to work as I am working now,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter. Sahan Journal is not identifying Jeanneth by her full name due to her immigration status. But now Jeanneth is trying to pay off a citation for more than $200 she received from the city for not having a license. “I’m trying to figure out what I can do everyday since I’m just really not able to pay that money,” she said. Minneapolis has seen an increase in unlicensed street vendors since 2023, with some selling items near parks, highways and on road medians.

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