Puerto Rican panel orders a halt on refugee camp

Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board orderes the US Navy to stop building a camp to house hard-to-settle Cuban and Haitian refugees, but the Navy ignored the order. The move came after Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo, locked in a bitter battle for reelection, filed a federal court suit seeking an injunction against President Carter's plan. A Navy spokesman said he did not know if the board had jurisdiction over the Navy's actions and that in the absence of a court order, the work would continue. Meanwhile petitions poured in against the island's becoming "the garbage can of America." Many Puerto Ricans charge that lack of immigration control will allow Washington to deposit the refugees and wash its hands of a stateside problem.