Borroel is a meat packer at Dakota Premium Foods and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789. The union local sponsored and built the event, which was held in its hall.

"There are many other cases like his," she said. "If we win this case, it is a victory for all of us. This is the first campaign I can remember that everyone is fighting together. It is for this reason that Róger got out of jail and that he can win."

The January 11 gathering was part of a national speaking tour organized by the Róger Calero Defense Committee. Calero, a Militant staff writer and associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial, was arrested and jailed by INS officials at Houston Intercontinental Airport on December 3 as he was returning home from a reporting assignment in Mexico and Cuba.

With protest messages pouring into the mailbox of the INS district director in Houston, the journalist and former meat packer was paroled December 13. The agency now plans to institute "removal" proceedings against Calero at a March 25 hearing.

To justify their attempt to deport him to his native Nicaragua, INS officials cite Calero’s 1988 conviction as a high school student in Los Angeles on a charge of selling an ounce of marijuana to an undercover cop. Threatened with a jail term, Calero had copped a plea and received a suspended 60-day sentence, three years’ probation, and a $50 fine.

Calero reported this when he applied for permanent residency in 1989. Waiving the conviction, the INS granted him a green card and renewed it in 2000. The journalist, who is married to a U.S. citizen, lives in Newark, New Jersey.

Local 789 president Bill Pearson chaired the meeting. He noted the many workers present and the breadth of participation. "There are teachers, truckers, meat packers, and workers from many walks of life," he said. He singled out for special mention two new members of the local who are among 15 workers at Borders Bookstore in Minneapolis who had just organized themselves into the union.

Pearson also pointed to Ray Waldron, the president of the state AFL-CIO, and officers of the Service Employees International Union and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) unions in the Twin Cities. Also attending the meeting were Minnesota state representatives Tim Mahoney and Carlos Mariani.  
 
Students, other young people attend
Among the young people present were four students who had traveled 45 minutes from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Also there were five members of the Minnesota Cuba Committee; a leader of Pro-Choice Resources, which defends woman’s right to choose abortion; and four members of the Social Action Committee of Our Lady of Guadalupe church. Two young activists helped to staff a resource table for the defense effort.

Among the meat packers in attendance were five workers from GFI, a plant in Minneapolis, and well over 20 of Borroel’s co-workers at Dakota. Starting in June 2000 these workers had fought a series of battles to organize a union in the plant and win a contract. During his time on the Dakota slaughter floor in 2000 Calero had participated in and helped lead this fight.

The favorite slogan of the Dakota fight has been "Si, se puede" (Yes, we can do it). "I want to express now something I have learned recently," said Pearson. "Is it possible to win the fight to stop Róger’s deportation? Si, se puede! Si, se puede!" The entire meeting stood and joined in the chant.

"About a month ago," Pearson reported, "I was asked to be a national co-chairman of the Róger Calero Defense Committee. I thought to myself, ‘How would it look for the president of a union to hook up with the Socialist Workers Party?’" Calero is a long-standing member of the SWP.

"Then I looked in a mirror," said the Local 789 leader. "How could I tell workers in struggle not to be afraid if I was afraid to publicly stand by Róger? So I decided to agree.

"Besides, Róger is my friend. He has spent much of his life fighting for workers’ rights. I am proud to stand with him."

Pearson said that he would personally donate $100 to the national defense campaign on condition that the local’s secretary-treasurer, Don Seaquist, contribute $200. Seaquist promptly replied, "I will contribute a check for $200 from UFCW Local 789."

This began the fund collection. Between this and the proceeds at the door, the event netted more than $2,000 toward the drive of the New York–based defense committee to raise $50,000 for the campaign.

In several meetings of unionists over the previous week union staffer Bernie Hesse had raised hundreds of dollars toward the fund. Hesse had headed up the building of the meeting for the local--an effort that included a mailing to other unions and the distribution of a flyer at Dakota Premium Foods and other plants. The notice was displayed in stores in neighboring communities and was also posted to the local’s website, which will feature a video of the event.  
 
‘We are facing the same issues’
"Your fight is our fight because we are facing the same issues," said Zainab Hassan, another speaker and a leader of the fight against INS harassment and deportations of members of the Twin Cities Somali community. "There are lots of young Somali men in INS detention centers. Soon after Sept. 11, 2001, 30 were deported to Somalia," she said. One had been killed.

"There does not exist any central government in Somalia to take responsibility for them if they are deported," said Hassan, "yet the INS is trying hard to deport more Somalis." The Twin Cities and Seattle are home to more immigrants from Somalia than any other U.S. city. A meeting of more than 200 people had been held in the Somali community to protest the deportations, she said.

Calero had spoke at the Somali community event, receiving applause when he stated, "I am in complete solidarity with the Somali community against the deportations. The Somali community has been portrayed by the US government as unworthy of defense against these attacks." The government shut down a number of Somali businesses here in November 2001.

"Immigrants have been taken advantage of," said Feliciano Laurent, the coordinator of the Social Action Committee of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "They trample on us. They mistreat us. But we have to get out of the basements and fight them." A member of ISAIAH, a church-based coalition that speaks out for the rights of immigrants, Laurent encouraged all those present to participate in the organization’s program on January 19 for Martin Luther King Day.

"What’s happening to me is happening to hundreds of thousands of other immigrant workers in this country," said Róger Calero. "That is why I am getting a hearing from civil libertarians, unionists, Black rights fighters and those struggling for immigrant rights. We are launching a fighting campaign against my deportation. An injury to one is an injury to all. A victory for one is a victory for all!

"I want to thank you for your help," he said. "I am convinced that I would still be in jail if it were not for this kind of response."

After Calero’s remarks, Pearson opened up the meeting for others to speak. Among those who took advantage of the opportunity was Uriel Perez, an official of HERE Local 17, which led a victorious strike of hotel workers in Minneapolis in the summer of 2000; a leader of Centro Campesino, which defends farm workers in areas south of the Twin Cities; and Juan Luis Garcia, an unemployed industrial worker who stressed the need for united action. ISAIAH vice president Pablo Tapia also spoke and, like Perez, later endorsed the defense effort.

Local 789 members took responsibility for important aspects of the event, from the greeting of people as they arrived, to the food and music for the party that followed. The wife of one Dakota worker cooked a meal of puerco con mole. The local donated coffee, cider, and soda, while union staffers helped with the setting up of the tables and the serving of the food. An energetic DJ provided music for the event.

Calling the turnout "evidence of what we can do," Calero noted in his remarks that he had " spoken at similar meetings in Des Moines, Omaha, and Chicago.

"In Omaha a number of meat packers who are fighting to organize a union were present," he said. "They discussed the connection between their fight and other struggles, including the fight to stop my ‘removal.’ The fight against the deportations is an important part of building and defending unions in this country today."