LOS ANGELES – Two Los Angeles City Council members announced Tuesday they want to legalize sidewalk vendors, saying it would help people who fear deportation because of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions who are in the country illegally.

Joe Buscaino and Curren Price sent a letter to their fellow councilmembers outlining the proposed policy to decriminalize sidewalk vending, issue permits to the vendors, create vending zones and establish graduated penalties for scofflaws.

Buscaino chairs the council’s Public Works & Gang Reduction Committee. Price heads the Economic Development Committee.

It is a misdemeanor to sell food and goods at any time on all 10,750 miles of public sidewalks in Los Angeles, making it the only major U.S. city to completely ban sidewalk vending, the letter said.

The ban – which does not apply to food trucks or customers – is lightly enforced but it can carry fines of up $1,000.

“At an early age, we teach our children concepts like overhead, profit and loss by encouraging them to sell Girl Scout Cookies, candy bars, and lemonade. Yet, if they sell any of those on a public sidewalk in Los Angeles, they are committing a crime of the same seriousness as drunk driving,” the letter said.

Other major cities are known for their street food, the letter added.

The councilmen first raised the idea of legalizing street vending three years ago and the details are still being worked out, prompting activists to complain about the slow pace for the proposal.

The issue took on new urgency with the election of Trump, whose campaign promise to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally has spread fear in the city’s immigrant community, said Dennis Gleason, Buscaino’s policy director.

Many of the estimated 20,000 Los Angeles sidewalk vendors are believed to be in the U.S. illegally and the current law would make them criminals, raising the chance of their deportation for simply making a living, Gleason said.

“The election of Donald Trump certainly lit a fire under everyone,” he said. “We really wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.”

“Sidewalk vending is one of the most accessible ways to start a small business, and in a city like Los Angeles with high levels of poverty and skyrocketing housing prices, we should be assisting entrepreneurs who are attempting to help themselves and help their families – not arresting them,” the councilmen’s letter said.

Decriminalizing sidewalk vending also is a public safety issue because vendors, being on the street, “are in a unique position” to spot crime and should be comfortable cooperating with police, Gleason said.

Suggestions in the letter would allow a limited number of sidewalk vendors to operate in special zones during specified hours. Vendors would have to carry liability insurance and food sellers would need county health permits.

The Public Works & Gang Reduction Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposals on Dec. 12. Eventually, the entire City Council would have to order the city attorney to draft laws legalizing street vending and permitting permits to be issued.

Gleason said he hoped to obtain council approval before Trump’s inauguration in January.

It would bring “a degree of comfort” to Los Angeles residents who are in the country illegally, he said.