In January, we reported on a joint police/immigration raid at the Hummingbird Citrus Farm located in La Democracia at Mile 31 on the Western Highway. The raid resulted in the rounding up of 19 undocumented immigrant workers, 17 men and 2 women. The Manager of the farm, 33 year old Ray Ogaldez was charged with 19 counts of employing a person not in possession of an employment permit.
It had all appearances of a dramatic bust, but today, Ogaldez was cleared of the charges when he appeared today in the number three Magistrate’s Court. Senior Immigration Officer Horace Guzman, who represented the prosecution, withdrew the charges due to lack of evidence. Seventeen of the workers were from Guatemala and the remainder were from Honduras. If he was convicted, Olgaldez would have had to pay a fine of One Thousand dollars for each undocumented worker.
