CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : Cuban Agent’s Plea for Bail Rejected

A federal judge rejected a plea to free a Cuban counterintelligence agent who is attempting to defect but faces deportation on allegations he is a national security risk. Juan Manuel Rodriguez Camejo, who insists he is disillusioned with the Castro regime and is a genuine defector, was hoping to be released on bail while he pursues political asylum. But U.S. District Judge Judith Keep deferred a ruling until after the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on the matter. No board hearing has been set. The asylum appeal, meanwhile, could take more than a year. Rodriguez, 40, was jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center after he and his wife, Mimna Montes de Oca Aldavert, 30, and daughter, Paola, 6, were arrested while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border illegally Oct. 29. His wife and child were released on $2,000 bail each. The Immigration and Naturalization Service refused to grant bail to Rodriguez because of allegations he is still a Cuban agent.