Immigration agents target 7-Eleven stores

Five in S. Fla. checked for hiring-law compliance; no arrests made

Immigration agents descended on five South Florida 7-Eleven stores Wednesday to interview workers and review records as part of what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency.

About 100 stores were targeted nationwide in what one administration official said was “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,” Derek Benner, acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, told the Associated Press.

Agents visited stores in Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Homestead, Miami Beach and Haverhill in Palm Beach County, said Nestor Yglesias, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Agents also visited two stores in Vero Beach.

No arrests were made Wednesday at those locations, Yglesias said. Officials are

not releasing the addresses of the stores.

Agents arrested 21 people at stores elsewhere, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Agents visited 98 stores nationwide in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

In a statement, 7-Eleven Inc. said it’s the responsibility of franchise owners to comply with state, local and federal employment laws.

“7-Eleven takes compliance with immigration laws seriously and has terminated the franchise agreements of franchisees convicted of violating these laws,” the statement read.

Agents served store owners with notices of inspections, a process called an “I-9 audit” that allows ICE to review employment records to ensure compliance with hiring laws.

The Obama administration also routinely conducted such checks, serving more than 3,000 notices of inspection in 2013, according to ICE.

ICE described the latest sting as a follow-up to a 2013 investigation that resulted in the arrests of nine franchise owners and managers in New York and Virginia for conspiring to commit wire fraud, stealing identities and concealing and harboring undocumented workers employed at their stores. All but one, who remained a fugitive until his arrest in November, pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution for back wages stolen from workers, according to ICE.

“Today’s actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce: ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable,” Thomas D. Homan, acting director of ICE, said in a statement.

Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez, director of membership for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, condemned the enforcement action, saying it targets otherwise law-abiding immigrants trying to provide for their families.

“This administration keeps terrorizing communities,” Sousa-Rodriguez said. “There is so much hateful rhetoric, and it's so divisive.”

The Trump administration has ramped up deportations in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

ICE’s Miami office reported 7,100 removals this year compared with 5,600 last year, a 27 percent increase.

CHRIS CARLSON/AP U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descend on a 7-Eleven store in Los Angeles on Wednesday. About 100 stores were targeted nationwide in what one administration official said was “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.