In Mayor Karen Bass's Los Angeles, the rule of law is separate and not equal when it comes to street food — with illegal immigrants and rogue vendors getting a free pass on violations while citizen restaurateurs and licensed food stands are subjected to fines, high costs, burdensome regulations, and even closures.

In short, L.A. and the surrounding counties have two sets of rules.

Other progressively-run cities like New York and Minneapolis also are catering to "vulnerable" and undocumented immigrant street vendors. But California is leading the way in sanctuary food practices.

The Los Angeles County Health Department, citing immigration enforcement efforts by the Trump administration, last fall suspended all enforcement of thousands of noncompliant street food vendors who have proliferated with the massive influx of illegals under the Biden administration.

With the labor market flooded with cheap migrant labor and the increasingly high cost of living in the Golden State, migrants were already ignoring regulations and licensing requirements to openly prepare and sell their native countries' meals on sidewalks and curbsides.

The health department suspended enforcement despite nearly 3,000 food poisoning complaints reported to the county in 2025, with health officials suspecting many more went unreported. If someone gets seriously ill from unlicensed street food, undocumented operators are typically uninsured and can easily disappear before being held accountable.

Meanwhile, compliant restaurants and food stands are subject to a myriad of sanitation rules, labor costs, insurance coverage, bureaucratic paperwork, regular inspections, and ratings posted in their windows as well as having to pay permit and operating fees.

"Imagine putting your life savings into opening a restaurant," one Angelino named KingOf98580 wrote on social media. "You do everything legally, pay rent, employees, taxes, business licenses, and a street food vendor pops up across the street with no overhead, no license, cash only, and undercuts your business. L.A. city officials suck."

Enforcement at the street level has been set aside in 2026 by county health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, who during the Covid pandemic became one of the most criticized officials in the U.S. for her sweeping, draconian shutdowns — ostensibly to keep everyone from getting sick.

One of the first to publicly point out the double standard was Anthony "Reed" Deugenio, community activist and owner of Big Dix Hot Dogs, a gourmet mobile cart in West Hollywood.

"I follow the rules — inspections, health standards, permitted areas," Deugenio told the California Post in February. "Meanwhile, unlicensed vendors break the rules openly."

"I had to register a business, pass a criminal background check, get a seller's permit, tax ID — everything," the vendor explained. "This cost a lot of money to set up. I pay inspection fees, taxes to the city. And now I'm losing half my profits to people who don't follow the same set of rules."