Calero was seized by the INS December 3 as he came through the Houston Intercontinental Airport while returning from a reporting assignment in Latin America. He was jailed and proceedings to throw him out of the country begun, based on a 1988 conviction for selling about an ounce of marijuana when he was in high school. In 1990 the INS waived this conviction and granted him permanent residence. They renewed his legal status in 2000.
 

Bill Pearson, president, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789, South St. Paul, Minnesota.

My name is Bill Pearson and I am President of UFCW Local 789. We are located in South St. Paul, Minnesota and have a membership of 8,000.

I came to know Róger when he was working in a packing house in South St. Paul. It was the Dakota Premium plant, and Róger was an active and committed leader in helping stabilizing the workers and bring about a labor agreement. He was bright, articulate and well read. His co-workers saw him as a person to turn to for help. So did I.

Making him leave this country would be an injustice. I implore you, do not deport him. Allow him to stay and Latino workers will be the better for it.

Bruce D. Nestor, president, National Lawyers Guild, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I am writing to request that you promptly drop exclusion proceedings against Róger Calero and that pending any decision to terminate proceedings, he be released on bond into the United States.

The National Lawyers Guild is an organization of over 5,000 law students, attorneys, and legal workers, many of whom are active in the field of immigration. I will continue to monitor the status of this matter and hope that you will act promptly to reverse the actions taken against Mr. Calero.

Gladys Williams, People’s Tribunal of Valdosta, Georgia.

I think it is unfair to take away Róger Calero’s human rights and deport him to Nicaragua only because he visited Cuba and while he was there learned some things about the truth about America.

Freeing him from jail is a step in the right direction. I am in full support of the deportation hearing being dropped. I support immigrant rights.

José Oliva, director, Interfaith Workers’ Rights Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Our organization represents religious leaders and congregations throughout the greater Metropolitan Chicago Area. Our members are concerned with what would appear to be a targeted form of deportation against someone who stands up on behalf of others.

Besides his position as an editor of Perspectiva Mundial, Calero has dedicated his life in the United States to help the less fortunate.

As an Interfaith organization we must ask if this is how a nation repays someone who has devoted their life to achieving greater justice?

Marleine Bastien, executive director, Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Miami, Florida.

I am writing to protest the unjust detention of Róger Calero.

You are attempting to exclude him and deport him based on a 1988 high school conviction, for which he received a suspended sentence and a three year probation. This was waived by your agency at the time he was granted permanent residency. This arbitrary use of minor convictions of long ago as a basis for deportation is all too familiar and completely unjustified.

This jailing is not only an outrageous attack on the legal rights of Mr. Calero as a permanent resident, it further fits in with the abuse that I see heaped on honest, hardworking immigrant men and women every day, in my work as the Executive Director of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc. (Haitian Women of Miami).

Please, release Mr. Calero and stop the deportation hearings. Let him return to New Jersey, to his magazine, and to his work.

Jane Guskin, Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, New York, New York.

I am writing on behalf of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI), a New York City based grassroots advocacy organization, to express my concern over the dec. 3 arrest of Róger Calero by the INS in Houston, Texas.

As you know, Róger Calero has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1990. When the INS approved his permanent residence, it had full knowledge of his 1988 conviction.

Given that fact, I would like to know why the INS has taken the highly unusual step of revisiting Calero’s conviction at this time.

I think most Americans would agree that it is an inappropriate use of INS resources to selectively pursue proceedings against lawful permanent residents with US citizen families, with the aim of squelching media coverage of peaceful opposition activities.

David L. Wilson, Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti, New York, New York.

We have difficulty understanding on what legal grounds the INS would attempt to exclude Mr. Calero now. The situation raises the disturbing possibility that Mr. Calero is being held to keep him from carrying out activities like reporting on opposition to the FTAA and other projects promoted by the present administration. Reinforcing this concern is our experience with our friend Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a New York-area activist who was detained last April after he began appearing on a community radio station arranging interviews with human rights activists in his native Palestine.

The Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti asks the INS to release Mr. Calero immediately, end its effort to deport him, and allow him to continue serving our community through his work as a journalist.

Rev. Daniel Dale, Agape House, Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Calero is a journalist and a permanent resident of the USA married to a U.S. citizen. His work has taken him throughout Latin America for many years. Your detention of Mr. Calero is a direct threat to many of the basic rights and freedoms that are essential to the United States of America that you are sworn to protect: freedom of the press, freedom to travel, freedom of political and religious beliefs.

As a minister of the Christian Church that has served as a missionary in Latin America and takes mission teams there every year, I am especially concerned about the detention of Mr. Calero because of the implications it has for the Church. The mission work of the church depends upon the ability to move freely in and out of the USA. Many of our religious communities have members from other countries that live and work in the USA. Many of our journals that report on global mission employ journalists from other countries. If Mr. Calero can be detained and threatened with deportation, then so can any of our church members from other countries. The Directors of Mission Boards from many national church bodies are watching the case of Mr. Calero very closely.

Willie Evans, councilman, Clayton, Louisiana.

I, Mr. Willie L. Evans, am a member of the Christian Baptist denomination, a councilman with the Town of Clayton, LA, and a member of the United Steelworkers of America.

Recently, I learned that you detained Mr. Róger Calero a legal Nicaraguan immigrant in America with intentions of permanently deporting him out of this country. I’m protesting this action taken in the form of this letter.

I feel this is an unjust act; and it is a hinder to him from performing his job as a journalist.

Hector Flores, secretary-treasurer, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, Chicago, Illinois.

Given the fact that Mr. Calero’s youthful transgression has been known to you for at least 12 years and you have twice previously approved his application for permanent residency I can not see the justification for a hearing whose goal is to deport him to Nicaragua.

I respectfully request that legal processes begun against Mr. Calero be stopped and that he be permitted to resume his normal functioning as a resident of the United States.

Baxter Smith, editor, Community Times, Westminster, Maryland.

Mr. Calero has made several reporting trips outside the United States in his capacity with Perspectiva Mundial. So, it is astounding and bewildering that he is being detained at this point.

I urge you to reconsider your detention of Mr. Calero. He was doing nothing other than what countless other members of our profession routinely do on reporting trips.

Rev. David Fallon, pastor, Parroquia la Sagrada Familia, Cleveland, Ohio.

I write this letter to express my consternation and outrage for the treatment given to Róger Calero.

As an associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial he makes an important contribution to the diffusion of knowledge and culture to many diverse groups. I urge you to use your discretionary power to permit his release and to resolve his case fairly.

Nick Castle, Hollywood film director, Los Angeles, California.

My name is Nick Castle. I have spent the last thirty years writing and directing motion pictures. As a writer I have contributed to many films including, Steven Spielberg’s Hook, and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. As a director my credits include, Tap, Dennis the Menace, and Major Payne.

It is with great concern that I have learned of the case of Róger Calero who has been imprisoned by your department. Mr. Calero is a seasoned writer and editor for the respected journal Perspectiva Mundial.

I take attacks on the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment seriously. As an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) I will take this case to our membership for consideration. We in the Hollywood community have learned many a hard lesson about government interference in the arts. I’m sure many will find this case of a journalist threatened with deportation for simply speaking his mind as abhorrent as I do.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home