By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

SUPERIOR Court Judge David A. Wiseman says there is probable cause that the man arrested for providing a factory manager with undocumented illegal garment workers committed the offense.
Zhenjuan Zhang, also known as “Boss,” appeared for a preliminary hearing yesterday morning and was represented by Assistant Public Defender Samuel J. Randall.
Wiseman also said there was no probable cause that Zhang committed the offense of human smuggling.
Assistant Attorney General Kevin Lynch then moved to dismiss the illegal subcontract employment charge against Zhang.
Zhang and factory manager Shunji Li were charged with smuggling persons for illegal subcontract employment, and employing illegal aliens.
According to the information filed by the Attorney General’s Office in court, Zhang and Li on or about May 10 harbored one or more aliens, “while knowing, or in reckless disregard of, the fact that (the) aliens entered and remained in the CNMI in violation of the law.”
The information stated that Zhang and Li “unlawfully offered for employment or employed one or more aliens…within the commonwealth by means of any unapproved or unauthorized agreement, contract, subcontract or exchange with another employer in violation of the law.”
The information added that the defendants “did knowingly employ…Yehong Li, Fengdi Qian, Caifeng Wang, Lin Zhang, Lianfang Tong, Lifeng Ye, Hongying Cheng, Bihua Weng, Guoxiang Cheng, Shan Zhong, Hailing Wang, Ying Chen, Aijuan He, Yulan Zhu, Xiaofeng Li, Yang Song, Yanling Zhou, Qisen Zhou, Liugen Zhaung, Fengyu Wu, Weihong Bao, Xiaoying Wang, Xiaoli Xu, Guangman Qiu, and Shaomei Chen within the commonwealth while knowing that the aliens do not have lawful documentation and authority to be so employed and or hired them for employment without complying with labor immigration requirements.”
Zhang, Li and the 27 illegal aliens were arrested on May 10 by operatives of the Attorney General Investigation Unit, the Division of Labor and the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
The affidavit of Erwin Flores, immigration investigator, stated that they raided the Rifu garment factory in San Vicente after receiving information from a confidential informant that approximately 40 to 50 individuals were working illegally there.
The affidavit stated that Kidong Choi ran the company employing illegal workers.
Li was the person who hired, supervised and paid the illegal workers, the AGO stated.
It added that Zhang provided Li with undocumented illegal workers to work at the garment factory.