Daniel Jeremiah Mendonca, 18, a US citizen from the State of Florida, came to Belize on a cruise ship sometime in November last year. But he will be flying out sometime in the next day or two. His flight comes as a compliment from the Belize Immigration and Naturalization Department, after he could not produce a valid travel document. He was taken to the Magistrate’s Court on an Immigration violation charge and he was ordered to be deported immediately this afternoon.
Mendonca, who was escorted by two Immigration officers, appeared before Magistrate Aretha Ford this afternoon. He was read a charge of failure to produce a travel document. After entering a plea of guilty, he indicated to the Magistrate that he was in agreement with the facts that Immigration Officer, Antonio Gutierrez, read to the court.
Gutierrez told the court that Mendonca was arrested on Friday, February 6, after his department received information from the police that there was a US citizen pending immigration charges.
Gutierrez said that he visited the Eastern Division police station and interviewed Mendonca, who told him that he arrived in Belize sometime in November 2008. According to Mendonca, he came to the country on board a Norwegian Cruise line.
When Gutierrez asked him for his passport, he said that he did not have any, but he had only a US birth certificate that was issued in the State of Florida, on September 19, 2008.
The Immigration Officer told the court that he informed Mendonca that his status was illegal in the country.
Mendonca’s birth certificate was faxed to the US Embassy, Gutierrez told the court, and they were preparing travel documents for him.
Mendonca asked the court if he could be released from jail, because he was not able to seek legal representation or make a phone call since police picked him up from a house in the Los Lagos area where he was staying.
He could not be released from jail, however. Magistrate Ford ordered him to pay $1,000 plus $5.00 cost of court and ordered that he be removed from Belize immediately. If he failed to pay the fine, he would have to serve one year behind bars
“I have the money to pay the fine,” he told the Magistrate. “I don’t know how I am going to get it.”
Magistrate Ford assured him that the Immigration Officer would assist him to get his money to pay the fine.
“You will be removed from this country immediately. That will be my order,” Magistrate Ford told him.