BY JESÚS LÓPEZ TAPIA  
HOUSTON, Texas--Róger Calero, a Nicaraguan and associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial, published in New York, was arrested at the Houston Intercontinental Airport by immigration authorities as he was returning from Cuba and Mexico where he went on a reporting assignment.

The facts were reported to El Día yesterday, Monday, by Mrs. Sarah Katz, Calero’s wife.

"When my husband arrived at the airport last Tuesday, they told him that they were denying him entrance to the United States and they transferred him to an Immigration Service jail and he’s facing exclusion from this country," she said. "Róger, who I’ve been married to for a year, has lived in the United States for the last 17 years and has held permanent residence since 1990."

Interviewed about this matter, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) spokesperson Luisa Aquino said she could not comment on the Calero case because it concerns a permanent resident of the United States.

"This person is seeking to present his case before an immigration judge to be able to fight to be able to stay here," said Aquino. "I can only say that any person, whether or not they are a permanent resident, who has committed a serious crime may be deported to their country of origin."  
 
The charges against Calero
The immigration police is seeking to "exclude" Calero--deny him re-entry into the United States--and deport him to Nicaragua, his country of origin, on the basis of a 1988 conviction, when he was a high school student in Los Angeles and was accused of selling marijuana to an undercover policeman. Faced with the prospect of going to jail, Calero copped a plea and received a suspended 60-day sentence with three years probation.

Mrs. Katz, a U.S. citizen, explained that when her husband applied for permanent residence in 1989 he specifically included information about his conviction, which immigration officials waived in order to grant him a "green card" that gave him the right to live and work in the United States. In 2000, the INS replaced his card, having received all pertinent information about the 12-year-old conviction.

Calero, who is 34 years old, and his wife Sarah now live in Newark, New Jersey, and they have retained the services of a lawyer to handle the case.  
 
Unjust arrest, says immigrant advocate
Martha Olvera, representative of the Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty, declared that Róger Calero’s arrest is unjust.

"I agree that people should be punished when they commit a crime, but when this crime was committed as a youth and was paid for, I think that the person should have another opportunity and not be punished for the rest of their life," Olvera said. "Besides, the young man received his permanent resident card and the immigration authorities renewed it two years ago and gave it to him once again. So that’s an error by the INS, because from the very beginning they shouldn’t have allowed him to make his life here and become completely disconnected from his country to then later yank him out of here and send him back."

She emphasized that organizations that support immigrant rights in Houston are giving their moral support to Calero’s wife.

They are asking people to send protest letters to Hipolito Acosta, INS Director in Houston, at 126 Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX 77060; Tel. 281-774-4610. Fax: 281-774-5989; with a copy to Calero’s magazine, Perspectiva Mundial, 410 West Street, New York, NY, 10014 and by fax: (212) 924-6040.

The Political Rights Defense Fund in New York asks the community for financial contributions to help cover the rapidly growing legal and other expenses. Checks can be made out to the Political Rights Defense Fund, P.O. Box 761, Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007. These contributions are tax-deductible.
 
 
Related article:
Defenders of Calero campaign to stop move to deport him
Inside an INS jail: the U.S. ‘justice’ system at work
U.S. private prisons: brutal and profitable
Meatpackers plan defense fund raiser
Calero case is latest fight for Political Rights Defense Fund
Young Socialists join fight against the deportation of Róger Calero
Stop deportation of Róger Calero  
 
 
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