Judge Refuses to Release Cuban Seeking Political Asylum in U.S.

A would-be Cuban defector with two decades of experience as a counterintelligence agent for Havana will remain behind bars while a U.S. immigration appeals panel decides whether he should be freed on bail, a federal judge in San Diego decided Thursday.

Federal authorities contend that Juan Manuel Rodriguez Camejo, a Cuban citizen, is a security risk and therefore should be denied bond. His attorneys say Rodriguez, 40, should be released while his application for political asylum in the United States is decided, a process that could take a year or more.

U.S. District Judge Judith N. Keep ruled Thursday that Rodriguez had not exhausted administrative remedies and therefore must remain incarcerated until the Board of Immigration Appeals has an opportunity to review the case. That is expected to take at least three weeks.

The would-be defector’s attorneys had gone to the judge seeking a court order releasing Rodriguez while the case was pending before the immigration appeals panel.

Last week, a U.S. immigration judge in San Diego ordered Rodriguez freed on $7,500 bail. But the Board of Immigration Appeals stayed that order after receiving a petition from U.S. authorities who objected to Rodriguez’s prospective freedom.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Rodriguez, his wife and young daughter in San Diego on Oct. 29 after the three entered the United States illegally from Tijuana. Eight days earlier, U.S. immigration authorities had turned them back at the border after initially denying their petition for political asylum.

Rodriguez’s wife and daughter were freed on bail and are staying with her father, an expatriate Cuban businessman who lives in Beverly Hills.