The Region - News from May 13, 1985

A federal judge in Los Angeles rejected an attempt by two Salvadorans seeking political asylum in the United States to halt deportation hearings against them. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matt Bryne on a 1982 lawsuit filed by David Antonio Mendez Lopez and Mauricio Emilio Henriquez also rejected the men’s assertion that they had filed for political asylum before they were apprehended by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials near Miami, Okla., on Oct. 12, 1981. They contended that their lawyer tried to file the request on the day of their arrest but was unable to do so because the immigration office in Los Angeles was closed for Columbus Day, a federal holiday. The deportation hearings against the men, accused of entering the country illegally, are scheduled to begin Aug. 23 in Los Angeles.