A Santa Ana family is helping street vendors by buying out their carts or working their shifts after many workers are opting to stay home out of fear during intense immigration operations.
Marisol Magaña, her partner Andrew Roa and their daughter have been raising money to buy out the street vendors’ carts and then hand them out to those homeless in the community. The family will also work the vendors’ shifts, allowing those to go home early to their families.
“It feels good to help people and get them off the streets, knowing that they’re safe at least for one day,” Magaña said.
What started as a simple kindness by the family has turned into a mission after raising more than $10,000.
Guadalupe Trujillo, a street vendor in Santa Ana that has been helped by Magaña and her family, will set up and work her fruit cart alone or joined by her 15-year-old son Kevin Cruz who is on his summer break.
“The fact that my mom could get deported and I’m getting separated from her –I didn’t want that to happen,” said Cruz. “So I volunteered to help her.”
But many times Trujillo is alone, saying everyday she goes out, not knowing if she will make it back home.
During heightened immigration raids, others have been helping undocumented families in Santa Ana, including a group of volunteers stepping in to go on grocery trips and errands for those scared to leave their homes due to the immigration raids.