7-Eleven Owners Busted for Harboring and Hiring Illegal Immigrants

Photo Credit: ShutterstockU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that five 7-Eleven franchisees have pleaded guilty to concealing and harboring dozens of illegal immigrants who were employed at the 14 stores they ran in New York and Virginia.

ICE said in a news release that the defendants will face either 10 or 20 years in prison for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, and for wire fraud. The defendants are also being charged with giving the immigrants fake identities that were stolen from U.S. citizens, including the identities of children and the deceased.

They also housed illegal immigrants at their homes, and stole millions of dollars from their wages.

“These defendants knowingly hired illegal aliens to feed their greed, stole the identities of unsuspecting U.S. citizens, and swindled more than 2.6 million dollars in wages from their enslaved workers,” said James T. Hayes Jr. special agent-in-charge of Homeland Security Investigations New York. “This case serves notice to employers that they will be severely punished if they seek to profit on the back of an illegal workforce.”

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