Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained two vendors for Real Change, the nonprofit and progressive newspaper said in a press release.
Real Change has not publicly released the names or any information about the vendors, but says both were “dedicated.” Real Change shared the vendors’ names and registration numbers with The Stranger. We used ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System to verify their detention at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
Most of Real Change’s self-employed vendors, who buy the paper for $0.60 and make a $1.40 profit from each $2 sale, are homeless or formerly homeless. Selling the paper on the street is a way for vendors, who often struggle to break into the wider job market, to make money.
In its press release, Real Change said many of the city’s most vulnerable people are undocumented immigrants who are working to survive “and lift themselves up out of poverty” through programs like theirs. It has asked the public to donate to its legal defense fund.
“This is not merely an unfortunate incident; it is a calculated act of cruelty and intimidation that goes against the very fabric of our mission and our city’s values,” said Krystal Marx, Executive Director of Real Change, in a press release. “Our vendors are not ‘others’—they are our neighbors, our colleagues, and the heart of this organization. To see them targeted and detained by a federal agency is an outrage that we will not stand for.”
In May, Donald Trump’s administration tripled ICE’s arrest quota and the agency started arresting more immigrants with no criminal history or criminal charges against them. In June, they accounted for more than half (53 percent) of the people ICE arrested in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, according to data from UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project.
It’s still unclear exactly why, when, and where ICE detained the Real Change vendors. The nonprofit said it is still trying to reach them and will release additional information about them under the “Advocacy” tab on its website.
While the arrests are calculated (the voters demanded illegal immigrants be removed from the country, President Trump is keeping his promise), they are not cruel.
Enforcing the law duly passed by both houses of Congress, securing our sovereignty in the process and putting citizens before all others is not cruel. It’s what every citizen in every country hopes their Government will do for them.
There are now two more spots available for citizens to sell the Real Change newspaper. And based on statistics, one additional apartment just became available for a citizen.
Yes, this is EXACTLY what I voted for.
“nonprofit” – LOL
“progressive” – LOL
“dedicated” – LOL
Boo hoo your slaves got arrested
and
now
they’re
Yours valvoline
will you guys
Work them to
Death and Then
Harvest their Organs
or skip that Nonsense*
& go Straight for
the Real $$$?
*of Course
you Will hafta
Beat them a few
times, let ’em Know
how you Feel about Foreigners
or just
Off-whites
say that Reminds me:
have You had
Your Genes
Checked?
if there’s even
a Hint of Color
in your DNAs, you
Too might be Eligible!
Real Change is such a crock, just a cover for panhandling.
Back before the pandemic they would run “Vendor Profiles” of their panhandlers. Funny thing is all of their panhandlers moved to Seattle from other places and just mysteriously became homeless with weeks of arriving in the Emerald City. Of course since they were couch surfing upon their arrival they didn’t arrive in Seattle homeless, they became homeless in Seattle. I remember one profile of a guy who claimed to be a machinist, who arrived in Seattle from the Rust Belt. Somehow, this machinist, couldn’t manage to find a job, in Seattle, in the middle of a massive construction boom. Go figure.
Back in 2017 or 2018 there was this one vendor who solicited on Market Street in Ballard. I sat at the now defunct Ballard Public House and watched this individual run up to cars on Ballard, jump in and drive around the block to get dropped off about five minutes later. He did this all afternoon. I’m sure it was completely legit and he wasn’t dealing drugs or anything like that….
I absolutley refuse to even acknowledge these panhandlers, and urge everyone to do the same.
@3
Out on bail or did your meds wear off?
I hadn’t realized that folks slinging real change were undocumented – this at at least brings some legitimacy to the vendor model scam. For those who don’t have restrictions on their employment, Real Change should pay these folks the Seattle minimum wage – anything less should be criminal.
Independent contracting is a scam – workers need to push back, demand their wages like all other employees.
@5 & 4
ohmandy
my reported
Crime Spree was
merely krystlemethfarian
(no relation) and that socio-
psychopathetic Wormtongue’s
fever dream projection gone mad
but it’s
so Kind of
you to inquire
you’re much more
Caring than you let on*
*that Shout-out
to those Panhandlers?
when they’re Productive
members of the Republican
Party again, we’ll Know to whom
the Credit lies. my eyeholes are Leaking!
Oh shit, Calvin Priest is back
@6: Hey, no fair pointing out the exploitation and hypocrisy in Real Change’s business model, and how the Stranger would criticize it if anyone else used it. “But it’s ok when we do it, because we’re better than everyone else who does it,” has been the motto of demagogues since ancient Athens, if not longer.
@3: Welcome back!
@3 and @7 kristofarian: Welcome back!!! You were very greatly missed. You’re just in the nick of time.
The usual trolling idiots have gotten a bit batshit crazy in their bootlicking lately. They’re into eating shit,
like typical brownshirts. The late Mort Drucker and Stan Hart would have a satirical field day with these pathetically Mein Trumpf brainwashed KKKlowns.
Thank you. it’s
Good to be
Here.
much like our
Cadet Bonespurs’s
taken the Fun outta
& put the Nasty into
dysfunctional dynasties
tS’s reichwing
jackboot-sucking scrotum-
licking fellow trolls aka his Fol-
lowers have truly Infested tS too
[looks
like ole
wormmy’s
gonna hafta
Resurrect his
[sik] little sockbott*
take it outta the closet
so to Speak, if you Will
and once again Unleash
his ai inner Jr High upon us
but who Knows? perhaps tS’ll
decide to once and for all clean
house. oh and an
Edit Button’d
be Nice].
*an emoji-free at last
Thumpyourasses
“In May, Donald Trump’s administration tripled ICE’s arrest quota and the agency started arresting more immigrants with no criminal history or criminal charges against them.”
Wow sounds like a huge change! If only there had been a presidential election in 2024 where The Stranger could have relentlessly told its readers that there were significant differences in the policy preferences between the two major party candidates and they were very much not the same. Oh well, maybe next time!
Well, here’s a marketing opportunity for RC, these two can sell their rag to the ICE agents and the other illegals in detention!
It’s long past time to examine Real Change. Right there in the name, we have a promise of more than merely “flinging a coin at a beggar,” but rather, the “true compassion” that MLK sought. How well has it done? Over decades of operation in Seattle, how many badged vendors have moved into stable housing? Does anyone know? Or care?