The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 67/No. 10           March 31, 2003  
 
 
Workers in Detroit back fight
to stop Calero’s deportation
(front page)
 
BY DON MACKLE  
DETROIT--During a visit to this city in early March, Róger Calero built solidarity with his fight against deportation at a campus rally protesting Washington’s drive to an invasion of Iraq, and at several other events, including an evening public program and a lunchtime meeting with meat packers at their workplace.

Calero is an editor of Perspectiva Mundial and a staff writer for the Militant. He has faced the threat of deportation since December 3, when he was seized by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) at Houston Intercontinental Airport. At the time, he was returning to the United States from reporting assignments in Cuba and Mexico.

The March 5 peace action at Wayne State University involved some 200 students. After talking to protesters about his case, Calero was invited to the Student Center to speak at an Antiwar Café. Ben Duell, a campus activist who helped to organize Calero’s tour, introduced him and encouraged participants to build support for the defense campaign.

In his presentation Calero described the facts of the case, and explained that many other immigrant workers also face victimization. The agents who detained him, he said, cited his plea-bargain conviction in 1988 for selling one ounce of marijuana to an undercover cop. The INS had previously waived the conviction in granting him permanent residency, which he has held for 13 years.

Attacks on immigrant rights are part of Washington’s broader offensive against workers’ rights, Calero said--an offensive that proceeds alongside the march to war in the Middle East and elsewhere.

"As the bombing of Iraq intensifies, the chauvinistic campaign to divide us on the basis of who has papers and who doesn’t will also intensify," Calero said. "We will do the opposite of what the rulers expect us to do," he stated, "by demanding our rights, organizing, fighting to win, and making them pay the highest political price for their actions."

Calero had discussed the same points the previous day in his remarks to the eight workers who assembled to meet him outside an Eastern Market meatpacking plant. He talked about his experience as a meat packer in the Dakota Premium plant in South St. Paul, Minnesota, where he had worked before taking up his position at Perspectiva Mundial. He had been part of a union-organizing drive there. Several of the Eastern Market workers compared their own situation to his account of that ongoing fight against speedup and for dignity.  
 
Bosses’ tactics of divide and rule
Much of the discussion focused on the question of racism and how the bosses try to divide workers--Black, Latino, white, men, women--to prevent them from coming together to fight against common injustice on the job.

Fernando Reyes, a worker at the plant who had helped set up the meeting, also spoke at the March 2 public meeting, making an appeal for financial contributions.

Alberto Villagómez, a production worker in a tortilleria in southwest Detroit, welcomed the 30 participants to the event. He had helped to arrange the venue of Holy Redeemer Church, a prominent church in the area. Villagómez had also been instrumental in securing two articles about the case in El Central, a local newspaper, in the weeks before Calero’s visit.

"I hope you take time to look at the letters of support for Calero we have on display and enjoy the refreshments," said Villagómez. "We hope for your support and financial contributions as well."

Calero shared the speakers platform with Ignacio Meneses, a co-coordinator of the National Network on Cuba and the US/Cuba Labor Exchange. Meneses condemned the ongoing attack on democratic rights under the guise of the "war on terrorism." He also spoke about the case of the five Cuban political prisoners currently incarcerated in jails in five separate states. Meneses called on all those present to support the fight for freedom of the Cuban five, and to oppose the authorities’ recent move to lock them all in solitary confinement.

"The first victory in my case was getting out of jail," said Calero. The INS agents had locked him up in their Houston detention center the day of his arrest. He gave the credit for his release to the dozens of people who sent letters of protest to the Houston INS office.

The defense committee is still calling for letters protesting the deportation attempt to be sent to the INS offices in Houston, Calero said. He reported that the authorities had said they would not contest his lawyers’ motion to transfer the hearing on his case from Houston to Newark, New Jersey, where he lives. The new date for the hearing--postponed from March 25--has yet to be announced.

"What Róger is fighting for is not just his case, but for thousands of others who face similar situations," said Reyes in motivating a collection that netted around $400. "We need to collect funds to help pay for the phone calls, producing materials, and making it possible for Róger to continue his travels and get the word out as broadly as possible about his case," Reyes said. "The success of this struggle depends on people like us."
 

*****

Róger Calero Defense Campaign Tour

The Róger Calero Defense Committee is organizing a speaking tour for Calero in cities around the country to broaden the fight to stop his deportation by the INS. Below is the schedule for the next stops in the tour. Requests for additional tour dates can be made to the committee.

Atl./Birmingham March 18–20

Washington, D.C. March 21-22

Philadelphia March 23-24

For more information or to send a contribution, contact the Róger Calero Defense Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007; phone/fax (212) 563-0585.
e-mail: calerodefense@yahoo.com


Support the Róger Calero Defense Committee
  • Send messages to INS district director Hipolito Acosta demanding the exclusion moves against Calero be dropped. Messages can be faxed to (281) 774-5989 or mailed to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 126 Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX 77060. Copies should be sent to the Róger Calero Defense Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007; fax (212) 563-0585.
  • Sign and distribute petitions demanding the INS drop the exclusion of Calero. A brochure and petition are available from the defense committee (e-mail: calerodefense@yahoo.com).
  • Funds are needed to meet legal and other expenses. Defense campaign backers in every city need to raise thousands of dollars for these needs. Organize phone calling for donations, seek honoraria for speaking engagements, and take collections at public meetings. The goal is to raise more than $50,000 by March 25, the date of Calero’s deportation hearing. Contributions are tax-deductible.

 
 
Related articles:
Step up Calero defense effort
Youth leaders back antideportation fight
Ohio students support Calero fight
International youth leaders discuss response to imperialist war  
 
 
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