American national jailed for expired visa

Pay up or spend six months behind bars. That was the option that forty-two year old American National, Juan Marcos Alba, received when he appeared in front of Magistrate Sharon Frazer in court today. Frazer found Alba guilty of Failure to Comply with the Conditions of a Visitor’s Permit and ordered him to pay a one thousand dollar fine before he is deported to the U.S., or serve six months imprisonment after which he will still be deported. According to court reports, Alba was detained by Immigration Officers today when he went to their office to extend his visitor’s permit. His permit however, had expired from August first of this year. According to Alba, he entered Belize on March twenty-eighth, 2007 and was thereafter given a temporary employment permit so that he could remain and work in Belize at the Ready Call Center. Alba could not immediately meet the fine and hence was taken into custody.