Last year, the NYPD issued 3,662 vending-related criminal summonses, many to immigrant New Yorkers who have been waiting years and years to get a permit to legally vend. Those New Yorkers were forced to appear in criminal court before a city judge, at a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been stalking courthouses and immigration judges have been using low-level misdemeanor arrests as a pretext to putting people in immigration detention.
As of today, however, most vendors in New York City will no longer have to worry about being given a criminal record for simply vending. That's thanks to Local Law 122, the first bill to go into effect from the Street Vendor Reform Package passed at the end of last year by the City Council. Though then-mayor Eric Adams vetoed the bills on his way out of City Hall, the council overrode Adams' veto during its first meeting this year and made the package into law.