Temptation Bar manager Estella Gonzalez and 10 of her employees were arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on Friday on immigration-related charges following a raid by immigration officers and police at Temptation Bar, located at Mile 10 on the George Price Highway.
Gonzalez, who is originally from Honduras and is a naturalized Belizean, appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, who imposed a $10,000 fine after she pleaded guilty to ten counts of employing persons without valid temporary work permits. Frazer ordered Gonzalez to pay forthwith.
Magistrate Frazer asked Gonzalez to offer a reason why she should not be sent to prison, since the offence to which she had pleaded guilty carries a prison sentence of two years on each count.
At that stage of the proceeding, Gonzalez broke down in tears, telling the court that she is a diabetic and is very sick. She also told the court that the women she had hired were in financial need, and that’s why she hired them.
Frazer told her that is no reason for breaking the law.
Gonzalez is charged for hiring eight Honduran women, who have been identified as Ceidy Danixa Garay Castro, 23; Silvia Lorixa Guzman, 26; Jessica Flores Gien, 33; Diyanira Maradiaga Reyes, 29; Rixa Yojana Flores Gonzalez, 30; Lesby Arzu Sanchez, 24; Suli Mariela Gonzalez Flores, 24; and Teresa Flores Gien, 21; as well as a Dominican national identified as Rosemeili Juarez Mezon, 27, who is 23 weeks pregnant; and a Guatemalan, Alejandra Zenayda Mejia, 25.
Following Gonzalez’s arraignment, two of her employees were charged with immigration offences and declared as prohibited immigrants to Belize. They were fined $1,000 each. They are Teresa Flores Gien, 21, a Honduran, and a Guatemalan, Alejandra Zenayda Mejia, 25
And like their boss, their fines were to be paid forthwith; if they default, they would have to spend one year in prison. Frazer also signed removal orders for them to be deported from Belize. They will be sent back to their countries after either paying their fines or serving prison time.
Another one of the women, Rosemeili Mezon, who had entered Belize via the western border and was granted a visitor’s permit that expired on August 14, 2013, was fined $1,000 for failure to comply with her visitor’s permit.
The immigration officer prosecuting the case withdrew a charge of prohibited immigrant from against Mezon after she was able to provide him with her passport.
No charge could be read to Honduran national Suli Mariela Gonzalez Flores, 24, because her court book was not properly presented before the court. She will be arraigned on Monday.
On February 6, 2014, at about 9:30 p.m., a team of three police officers, Immigration officer Eldon August, 15 officers from the Anti-Drug Unit and 10 officers from the Mobile Interdiction Unit conducted the operation at Temptation Bar.
All of the women told authorities that they were employed by Estella Gonzalez.