Federal agents detained several people while conducting an operation on Manhattan’s busy Canal Street, searching for undocumented immigrants who may have connections to illegal street vending, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the matter.

Everybody they arrested has the chance of having a whole family behind them, and they’re ripping it apart,” one vendor says.

ICE agents descended on the block between Lafayette and Centre Street, which is typically crowded with merchants selling knockoff designer bags and other items, around 4 p.m.