ICE agents raid 7-Eleven stores in 17 states, D.C.
LOS ANGELES — Immigration agents raided about 100 7-Eleven stores in 17 states and the District of Columbia yesterday — looking for foreign employees without green cards, in a rolling operation that a top immigration official said is “a harbinger of what’s to come.”
Employment audits and interviews with store workers could lead to criminal charges or fines. And they appeared to open a new front in Trump’s expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and pledges to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico.
Derek Benner, acting head of Homeland Security Investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the audits were “the first of many” and “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.
“This is what we’re gearing up for this year and what you’re going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters,” Benner said. “It’s not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry — big, medium and small.”
After the inspections, officials plan to look at whether the cases warrant administrative action or criminal investigations, Benner said.
7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, Texas, said in a statement that the owners of its franchises are responsible for hiring and verifying work eligibility. The chain with more than 8,600 convenience stores in the U.S. said it has previously ended franchise agreements for owners convicted of breaking employment laws.
Illegal hiring is rarely prosecuted, partly because investigations are timeconsuming and convictions are difficult to achieve because employers can claim they were duped by fraudulent documents or intermediaries.
Yesterday’s audits arose from a 2013 investigation that resulted in charges against nine 7-Eleven franchisees and managers in New York and Virginia. Eight have pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in back wages, and the ninth was arrested in November. The managers used more than 25 stolen identities to employ at least 115 people in the country illegally, knowing they could pay below minimum wage, according to court documents.