NATION IN BRIEF : TEXAS : INS Reportedly Releasing Refugees

Hundreds of Central Americans have been released from a Port Isabel, Tex., detention center in the last week, refugee advocates said. One former inmate said that refugees were told they could leave the camp if they had relatives with whom they could stay and if they promised to report to Immigration and Naturalization Service offices at their destinations. There are now about 1,100 refugees at the center. A paralegal worker speculated that officials were emptying the facility in preparation for a wave of immigrants from war-torn El Salvador. There was no comment from the INS.