Three people on the North Fork were arrested during a five-day sweep by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as part of an operation that led to 65 arrests throughout New York City and Long Island this month, the agency announced Wednesday. READ
A quickly growing rapid response network on Long Island aims to connect locals with immigrants living daily with the fear that they maybe deported.
The systems are organized by Long Island Jobs With Justice, a coalition that supports immigrants’ rights. READ
A handful of times this past summer, Carolyn Peabody traveled into New York City to attend the court appearances for a family friend’s son, who had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His family, she said, had been “very good” to Southold Town. READ
Through hosting citizenship classes at the Riverhead Free Library, Millie Rios often fields questions from her students regarding immigration policies and consequences — especially since Donald Trump has taken office.
Ms. Rios said she’s always made an effort to answer the questions herself or bring speakers to class, but decided the community at large would benefit from a larger public forum.
Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a series of operations across the country, prompting discussions about how local police departments should handle immigration.
Police chiefs on the North Fork have shown that they’re on the same page when it comes to policies involving undocumented immigrants, which remain unchanged and ultimately leave matters of immigration up to federal officials and ICE.
A ‘fisherman’ at Kenny’s Beach in Southold last year. (Stanley Siejka courtesy photo)
5:30 A.M.
The National Weather Service has extended the Winter Weather Advisory through 9 a.m. due to significant icing. Temperatures remain at about 10 degrees with a wins chill below zero. (more…)
A 20-year-old Greenport man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl allegedly had sex with the girl on several separate dates, including three times on Jan. 20, six days before he was arrested by Southold Town police, prosecutors said.
CYNDI MURRAY PHOTO | The 7-Eleven store in Cutchogue is now looking for new employees.
In the aftermath of last week’s federal seizure of a pair of North Fork 7-Elevens, many local customers have been asking the question, “What happened to the store’s former employees?”
Federal immigration authorities said that while the 7-Eleven raids were focused on the owners and managers of the raided stores — including the franchises in Greenport and Cutchogue — 20 workers were taken into custody for questioning on their immigration status.
Of those workers, 18 were from the New York area, while the remaining two are from Virginia, said U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement public affairs officer Khaalid Walls.
Authorities are still evaluating the workers’ cases and have not reached any conclusions in their cases, Mr. Walls said, adding that the government is focused on effective immigration enforcement that “prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators.”
“ICE is evaluating each case to determine eligibility for prosecutorial discretion as appropriate to focus resources on the agency’s stated priorities,” Mr. Walls said. “Such decisions are based on the merits of each case, the factual information provided to the agency and the totality of individuals’ circumstances.”
The Cutchogue and Greenport 7-Elevens are currently in the process of hiring new staffers. “Now hiring” fliers and employment applications have been on display in the stores since last week’s raids.
The eight people arrested for their role in the illegal 7-Eleven operations all pleaded not guilty and are being held without bail, a U.S. Attorney spokesman said. Azhar Zia, the final defendant indicted for his role in the scheme, remains at large, officials said.
It was business as usual at the Cutchogue 7-Eleven Tuesday morning, where a steady stream of customers entered the store looking for their coffee fix. There was, however, one notable exception: the employees some customers said they knew on a first name basis were nowhere in sight.
The 7-Eleven was among 10 Long Island locations, including the Greenport store, raided Monday by federal agents as part of a nationwide immigration and identity theft investigation. Eight male and one female 7-Eleven owners and managers were arrested for conspiring to steal the identities of more than 20 citizens, then hiring dozens of illegal immigrants to work at the 10 7-Eleven locations on Long Island and two more in Virginia, federal officials said.
The accused gave the illegal immigrants, who were of Pakistani and Filipino descent, false names to dodge authorities, stole portions of their wages and forced them to live in housing the defendants owned, according to a federal indictment.
Brenden Moschinger, who lives in Southold, said he stops at the Cutchogue 7-Eleven every day on his way to work. Today, he exited the store carrying a tray loaded with a frosted donut, coffee and a large soda.
“It’s kind of sad because they’re all hard workers,” Mr. Moschinger said of the store’s employees. “I guess nobody really knew they were working for almost nothing.”
“I haven’t seen [the owner] in a long time,” he said. “He didn’t seem like he would do that kind of thing, but I guess money gets the better of you sometimes.”
Wendy James, who lives in Cutchogue and has been coming to the store for the past 15 years, described the situation as “really sad.”
“I’m not sure what to think,” Ms. James said. “All these people were kind of our friends. I just wonder if any of the people were legal and if they will be coming back.”
The news also came as a surprise to customers who arrived at the store in Greenport just before it reopened Monday afternoon.
“Wow! That’s interesting,” remarked J.P Groeninger of Bohemia, who was in town to perform at the nearby Shakespeare in the Park. “The staff is always nice to me.”
Bill King of Orient called the news “wild.”
“The staff is pretty nice,” he said. “But I guess a couple of them were undocumented folks. There’s a lot of that around here.”
CYNDI MURRAY PHOTO | Law enforcement officials outside Cutchogue 7-Eleven Monday morning.
Nine people have been arrested as part of a nationwide immigration and identity theft investigation as federal agents seized 7-Eleven stores across Long Island including the stores in Cutchogue and Greenport Monday morning, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The eight men and one woman arrested conspired to steal the identities of more than 20 citizens, then hired dozens of illegal immigrants to work at 14 7-Eleven locations on Long Island and Virginia, federal officials said.
The accused gave the illegal immigrants false names to dodge authorities, stole portions of their wages and forced them to live in housing the defendants owned, according to the statement.
“The defendants used 7-Eleven as a platform from which to run an elaborate criminal enterprises,” said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch. “In bedroom communities across Long Island and Virginia, the defendants not only systematically employed illegal immigrants, but concealed their crimes by raiding the cradle and the grave to steal the identities of children and even the dead. Finally, these defendants ruthlessly exploited their immigrant employees, stealing their wages and requiring them to live in unregulated boarding houses, in effect creating a modern day plantation system.”
Farrukh Baig, 57, and Bushra Baig, 49, a married Head of the Harbor couple who operated 12 of the 7-Eleven stores, were among those arrested in the scheme, officials said.
Mr. Baig, who did not answer cell phone calls from a Suffolk Times reporter Monday, owned the 7-Eleven franchises in Greenport and Cutchogue, which were seized Monday morning by federal authorities. The stores will soon re-open and will be operated by the 7-Eleven corporation, federal officials said. As of 5:30 p.m. the Greenport store had reopened, but the parking lot of the Cutchogue location was still closed off by police tape.
CYNDI MURRAY PHOTO | The 7-Eleven store in Greenport remained closed at 1 p.m. Monday.
Mr. Baig’s brothers — Zahid Baig, 52, of Chesapeake, Va. and Shannawaz Baig, 62, of Virginia Beach, Va. — along with co-defendants Malik Yousaf, 51, of South Setauket, Tariq Rana, 34, of Chesapeake, Va. and Ramon Nanas, 49, of Great River, helped to “manage and control the stores,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In addition, 49-year-old Azhar Zia of Great River and 48-year-old Ummar Uppal of Islip Terrace, were indicted separately as owners of two other 7-Eleven locations in Suffolk County.
Since 2000, the nine arrested “collectively and systematically employed” more than 50 illegal immigrants from Pakistan and the Philippines at the various 7-Eleven franchises, federal officials said.
The defendants stole 25 identities — with victims ranging in age from 8 to 78 years old, including three dead people and a Coast Guard cadet — which they then passed off onto the illegal immigrants working in their stores, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Farrukh and Bushra Baig even allowed employees to use their own personal social security numbers in some instances, officials said.
The Baigs then submitted this false information to 7-Eleven corporate headquarters, which issued wages to the illegal immigrants, prosecutors said. But the nine defendants took “significant portions” of the immigrants wages, which were always paid in cash, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The local employees would make between $350 and $500 per week and would also have to pay rent back to the Baigs from that money, prosecutors said.
Ms. Lynch said money earned from the scheme was used by the Baigs to purchase large homes and was mostly kept in the family. Federal agents answered the door at Farrukh and Bushra Baig’s house in Head of the Harbor Minday, where they are continuing to investigate. Farrukh Baig purchased the Head of the Harbor house for $1.75 million in 2004, property records show.
CARRIE MILLER PHOTO | Federal agents are continuing to investigate at this Head of the Harbor house, where they say Farrukh and Bushra Baig live.
Employees worked 100 or more hours per week in some instances, but were only paid for as little as 25 hours in a week, prosecutors said.
Eighteen foreign nationals were also taken into custody today for immigration purposes.
“The defendants have been exploiting vulnerable individuals who, due to their immigration status, may have been afraid to come forward and report possible wrongdoing by their employers,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Edward Webber. “This multi-agency investigation illustrates our commitment to fighting against employers who abuse immigrant employees for their own financial gain.”
The nine defendants will be arraigned in federal court in Central Islip Monday, federal officials said.
If convicted, the defendants face 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and alien harboring charges, as well as multiple counts of aggravated identity theft, each of which carries a mandatory, consecutive two-year sentence, prosecutors said.
The investigation is ongoing and investigators are currently looking at 40 more stores across the country, federal officials said. Investigators are also looking into how information on the stolen identities was gathered. The investigation began in 2010 and some employees complained to Suffolk Police about the working conditions at area 7-Elevens back in 2011, law enforcement officials said.
“[It was] a decidedly un-American practice,” Ms. Lynch said.
7-Eleven offered the following statement Monday afternoon: “Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn announced it had filed two indictments related to alleged wrongdoing by independent 7-Eleven franchisees. 7-Eleven, Inc. has cooperated with the government’s investigation. All of our franchise owners must operate their stores in accordance with laws and the 7-Eleven franchise agreement. 7-Eleven, Inc. will take aggressive actions to audit the employment status of all its franchisees’ employees. 7-Eleven, Inc. is taking steps to assume corporate operation of the stores involved in this action so we can continue to serve our guests. We continue to cooperate with federal authorities in this matter.”
But Ms. Lynch said the company did little to stop the scheme.
“7-Eleven made little to no effort to secure integrity of their payroll system,” Ms. Lynch said. She said one of the identities was clocked in at stores in New York and Virginia at the same time and date.
One unit at Driftwood Cove in Greenport, one block from Mr. Baig’s Greenport store, was used to harbor illegal immigrants, according to the federal indictment. Nobody came to the door when a reporter knocked Monday morning.
Southold Town property records show Mr. Baig also owns a house less than a quarter mile from the Cutchogue store, which he bought for $75,000 in 1998. Nobody came to the door when a reporter knocked there as well.