U.S. Drops Effort to Deny Bond to Eight in Subversion Inquiry

A top government immigration attorney said Friday that Washington has dropped efforts to deny bond to eight Los Angeles-area immigrants facing deportation hearings on subversion charges.

The eight--seven Jordanians and a Kenyan--were arrested in January and are accused of belonging to a Marxist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Attorneys for the Immigration and Naturalization Service had argued that the eight were national security risks and should remain in prison during the hearings, scheduled to resume here June 26. But in February, an immigration judge ruled that the eight could remain free. A government appeal designed to overturn this decision was set for June 18 before the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va.

The government’s chief attorney on the case, Esmeralda Cabrera, said Friday that immigration officials decided not to press on with the bond appeal because they had “no reason to believe” the eight would not be present for the deportation hearings.