Seven Maryland stores part of 7-Eleven immigration raid

and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable,” Thomas D. Homan, an ICE deputy director, said in a statement. “Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet.”

Officials said 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide were targeted Wednesday.

Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the immigrant rights group CASA, said that the operation appeared to be focused on ensuring that employers have hired employees with proper documentation. Such worksite immigration enforcement is problematic, she said, because it scares employees from engaging with government agencies that oversee workplace health and safety. Durand noted the small number of arrests nationwide and said the raids appeared to be a “PR effort” designed mostly to scare immigrant communities.

The convenience stores are franchised businesses. In a statement, 7-Eleven said that individual business owners “are solely responsible for their employees including deciding who to hire and verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.”

As part of the immigration debate taking place on Capitol Hill, a group of House Republicans unveiled a proposal late Wednesday that, among other things, would require employers to use the EVerify system to check new hires against a federal immigration database.