A Salvadoran and 2 Honduran Busted for Illegal Entry

Franklin Menjevar

A Salvadoran national and two Hondurans were also taken to court on Tuesday for failure to present their documents to Immigration.   The trio was detained in the Belama area of Belize City and handed over to the Belize City Immigration Department. But the charges were withdrawn after the Immigration Prosecutor Luis Romero conceded that he had not levied the appropriate charges.  Salvadoran national Jose Valencio Lopez along with Franklin Adelberto Menjevar and Carlos Carteneja from Honduras were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith. Initially, all three pleaded guilty and but the prosecution requested that instead the trio be deemed as prohibited immigrants. But the Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith was not convinced and the prosecutor had to withdraw the charges.  The men were briefly free to go as they were taken back into custody to face the new charge for illegal entry in the country since the record shows that they walked across the border and into Belize. With that settled, they were fined five hundred dollars each after pleading guilty.  Chief Magistrate Smith ordered them to pay the fines by December fifteenth.