While hot dog vendors have been part of the city’s gray market for decades, changes in state law in 2018 and 2022 removing illegal vending from the police code and streamlining health permits have led to a boom in their numbers. In response, the city started a campaign warning of foodborne illness risks (opens in new tab) and launched a vending task force, a multiagency enforcement team that issues fines and confiscates carts. But it’s a cat-and-mouse game.<img id="5skp1nj4390bt72ou8cvhc5t25" alt="A large, bright yellow stylized sun with long, rectangular rays radiates from the right side on a solid light blue background." credit="" crop="[object Object]" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fixed" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%;object-fit:cover" class=" lazyloaded" srcSet="/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.sfstandard.com%2Fimage%2F994911177489%2Fimage_5skp1nj4390bt72ou8cvhc5t25&amp;w=120&amp;q=75 1x, /_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.sfstandard.com%2Fimage%2F994911177489%2Fimage_5skp1nj4390bt72ou8cvhc5t25&amp;w=240&amp;q=75 2x" src="/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.sfstandard.com%2Fimage%2F994911177489%2Fimage_5skp1nj4390bt72ou8cvhc5t25&amp;w=240&amp;q=75"/>Subscribe to The DailyBecause “I saw a TikTok” doesn’t always cut it. Dozens of stories, daily.Sign up nowThe workers are mostly undocumented immigrants from Central and South America, The Standard found through interviews with more than a dozen. Some have fled crime and violence. Many are seeking asylum and sending money home while they eke out an existence, one sale at a time. Others are victims of human trafficking: vulnerable people smuggled into the U.S. by groups to whom they are indebted.

The Guatemalan hot dog vendor is one of the uncounted cases. She owes 50,000 quetzals, about $6,500, and sales have slowed while expenses like rent remain high. On days when she makes no sales, her employer covers lunch, she said.She plans to ask the traffickers to extend the repayment timeline.“The truth is they are very demanding,” she said. “They warn you, ‘OK, if you don’t pay, we will take this and this and this away.’”And if she doesn’t pay, “there are risks of kidnapping, or they may steal from you, or even … kill your relatives,” she said.Despite the predicament she finds herself in, her family keeps her going. She is trying to find a way to bring her children to the U.S.“I fight every day to help them move forward,” she said. “Thank God I am almost through and, for the same reason, I am here working day and night, as long as I pay the debt.”

Selling hot dogs on San Francisco’s Embarcadero was the only work she could find.