New York: US law-enforcement officials raided over a dozen 7-Eleven convenience stores in Long Island, New York and Virginia on Monday and arrested managers for employing illegal immigrants, including Pakistanis and Filipinos.

Many of those charged were of Pakistani origin and it was believed that most of the illegal immigrants were also from Pakistan, US officials told the media.

The charges against the store owners and managers – eight men and a woman – included wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.

The raids come as the US Senate is poised to vote on a long-awaited measure overhauling America’s immigration system, including the employment verification process.

In a statement on Monday morning, 7-Eleven said it was aware of the raids and arrests, and planned to cooperate with officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as federal prosecutors pursue charges.

Investigators are also probing at least 40 other 7-Eleven stores along the East Coast while targeting as much as $30 million in forfeitures, said a source familiar with the case.

The managers arrested were charged in an indictment alleging that they had committed a string of identity theft crimes, which included fraudulently using the Social Security numbers of dead people and children in order to pay illegal immigrants, according to a report.

AP adds: Federal indictments naming the nine suspects allege that since 2000 they employed more than 50 immigrants who didn’t have permission to be in the US. They tried to conceal the immigrants’ employment by stealing the identities of about two dozen people, including those of the child, the dead and a Coast Guard cadet, and submitting the information to the 7-Eleven payroll department.

When 7-Eleven’s headquarters sent the wages for distribution, the employers stole “significant portions” of the workers’ pay, authorities said. The defendants also forced the workers to live in houses they owned and pay them rent in cash, they added.

“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,” US Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. “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.”

The government seized the franchise rights of 10 stores in New York and four stores in Virginia. The stores will remain open under the parent company’s operation.

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy.