Canal Street vendors say they were asked to show papers in immigration sweep

By JENNIFER PELTZ and JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A day after a mass of federal agents questioned street vendors and sparked protests on Manhattan’s Canal Street , sellers were noticeably scarce Wednesday on the busy strip. Some who did venture out, though, were disheartened or riled by a sweep in which they said people including U.S. citizens were pressed to show their papers.

Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s operation. The Department of Homeland Security called the operation “a targeted, intelligence-driven” operation “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”

But some vendors saw it as an indiscriminate and heavy-handed crackdown by masked agents who queried a wide