The Dallas Police Department has set up a series of sting operations to catch out Mexican immigrants selling frozen fruit treats from pushcarts.
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The immigrants, palesteros, are buying up the popular products, paletas, in bulk from distributors who own the carts and obtain the licences. They then sell the items at about a 50% mark-up.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Europe, tensions are mounting around the illegal traders and the workers of city-licensed concession stands, and turf wars are common as the market is flooded.
The paper highlights the case of 48-year-old Fernando Garduza, who immigrated to Texas five years ago. He does not have US working papers and started working as a bricklayer, but earned only US$100 a week. With the help of false identification however he now sells paletas and brings in several hundred dollars in wages a week, enough to send some money back to his wife and children in Mexico.
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By GlobalData
