43 year-old Salvadoran Belizean Maria Enriquez, the owner of La Cabana Bar on East Collet Canal Street; and 34 year-old Guatemalan Belizean Nilda Velasquez, the owner of Lion King Bar on King Street, are both facing charges tonight after they were busted by the Immigration Department for hiring immigrant workers who didn't have valid permits.
Yesterday Immigration officers raided both bars and found that Enriquez was employing 6 Honduran women who had come into the country legally, but did not have valid work permits.
The officers also discovered that Velasquez was employing 3 women - 2 Guatemalan, and 1 Honduran - who did not have valid working permits.
As a result, Enriquez was arrested and charged with 5 counts of employing a foreigner without a valid temporary employment permit. Velasquez was charged with 3 counts of that same charge.
Velasquez pleaded guilty when she was arraigned before Magistrate Hettie Mae Stuart this afternoon. As a result, she was sentenced to pay a fine of $3,000, half of which she was ordered to pay upfront, and she must pay the other half by December 15, or she will spend 2 years in default.
As for Enriquez, well, she is denying everything that the Immigration Department is saying, and today when she was arraigned before Magistrate Stuart, she pleaded not guilty to all 5 counts.
Magistrate Stuart granted her bail of $4,000 which she was able to meet; she is to return to court on December 5.
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