Valencia was one of more than 50 people who gathered in north Newark for a meeting demanding a halt to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) efforts to deport Róger Calero, a staff writer for the Militant newspaper and associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial. They included a number of workers, both U.S.-born and immigrant, along with activists involved in organizing protests against the U.S. government’s harassment and deportation of immigrants.

The meeting was organized by New Jersey supporters of the Róger Calero Defense Committee.

INS agents detained and jailed Calero December 3 at the Houston Intercontinental Airport as he returned to the United States from a reporting trip, during which he had covered political meetings in Cuba and Mexico and a book fair in Mexico. The INS based Calero’s arrest on his 1988 plea-bargain conviction on a charge of selling an ounce of marijuana to an undercover cop. Calero had informed the INS of this conviction when he successfully applied for permanent residency status in 1989; officials waived it again when his green card was renewed in 2000.

Calero was released from detention on December 13 after INS officials received dozens and dozens of protest letters about his case.

Ed Hernandez, the director of youth and family services at La Casa de Don Pedro, which donated its space for the event, welcomed everyone to the meeting. "We believe in assisting all those who are fighting for their rights," he said.

"Our philosophy is an attack on one of us is an attack on us all," said Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), a Newark-based anti-police brutality group.

Hamm explained to the gathering that Calero had attended meetings of his organization before leaving for his reporting assignment. When POP activists had learned of Calero’s arrest, he said, the group had "no question" that they needed to send a letter of protest right away. The POP recently had Calero address their meeting to update people on the case.

Joe Fortunato, the state chair of the Green Party of New Jersey, told participants that at its last statewide meeting the party had issued a statement in solidarity with the Calero’s fight. "This is an incredibly important case," especially because of the government’s drive toward war, he said.  
 
‘Made me confident about my fight’
Other speakers included Omar Arango from Elizabeth, New Jersey, a truck driver who has been a U.S. resident for 22 years but now faces a deportation hearing in June. Calero’s efforts to resist his deportation had "made me feel confident about my fight," Arango said. He had attended a similar public meeting in New York the week before, after reading about the case in the New York-based Hoy daily.

Subash Kateel of Families for Freedom, a New-York based immigrant rights organization, expressed the organization’s solidarity and read from its statement of beliefs. The first paragraph of the statement reads, "We believe that human beings do not deserve imprisonment or life exile for seeking asylum, having a past criminal conviction, being undocumented, or being from a targeted country."

Chairperson Sarah Katz, who is a leader of the defense effort and Calero’s wife, read from a letter of protest to the INS from Trenton city councilman at-large Manuel Segura.

Calero was introduced by Juan Espinosa, president of the United Corporation in Defense of Immigrants, who has been helping to win support for the Calero defense effort.

Reviewing the facts of his case, Calero noted, "Through the course of my national speaking tour, I have had the opportunity to join with others who are fighting back, refuse to be silenced and are standing up to the government."

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, passed under the Clinton administration, is now being applied retroactively to people like himself, Calero explained.

The law expanded the list of offenses considered grounds for deportation and directs the INS to expel immigrant convicted of crimes, even if they are legal residents of the United States.

"In the last few months the INS has been pouring millions of local, state, and federal court records into its database so that workers who only a few months ago could travel freely will now be detained," he said. "We are now being forced to pay twice for the same conviction."

Calero said that the Justice Department draft of legislation to increase the powers of the U.S.A. Patriot Act would strip citizenship from people who supported groups that the United States considers terrorist organizations. "Whereas before people could renounce their citizenship, now the government says that your renunciation of citizenship can be inferred from your conduct," Calero said.  
 
Part of drive toward war
This and other recent moves go hand in hand with the drive towards war, he said. "As the government intensifies attacks against Iraq they will step up patriotic and nationalist rhetoric as a part of an offensive against all working people." This is part of "an effort to defend their system," he said, "as it faces a deepening economic crisis."

A number of participants stayed after the presentations to continue the discussion, stock up on defense committee literature, and look over the informative display put together by volunteers.

"As soon as I heard about this fight I wanted to do something," said Willa Cofield, who first became active in politics in North Carolina in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. She had learned of Calero’s fight at a meeting of POP, and afterwards wrote a letter to the INS in Houston and sent a contribution to the defense committee.

"All of us who are concerned about civil rights and human rights have to support Róger and others who are in a similar situation," she said.

John Rodrigues, a 58-year-old worker from Guyana who has lived in the United States since 1976, said he had learned of the meeting that morning when a supporter of Calero distributing the Militant knocked on his door. "I didn’t have to read anything to come," he said, noting that he knows many people from the West Indies who have been deported or are facing deportation.

"You can’t deprive one person of their rights without depriving them all," said Zhang Zemin, from Nanjing, China, who has lived in the United States for 20 years. "It’s time to speak out against this," he said. "What happened to Calero could happen to me--I got my green card 12 years ago."

Linius Tejada and Maria Paulino are both Dominicans who live in the neighborhood. They decided to attend because of the case of Miguel Soto, who had owned a beauty salon in the neighborhood and is currently incarcerated at the immigration jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey. "He was arrested by the INS one month ago," said Paulino. "He has a U.S. passport and was born in Puerto Rico but the INS says he is not a citizen and is tying to deport him."

Calero said that he faces a deportation hearing on March 25. "We want to go to the hearing with as much public support as we can," he said, as he encouraged all those present to get involved in his and other struggles. "We have no illusions that it is an easy fight but there is a growing response to the attacks we are facing."

Participants in the meeting contributed more than $900 to the defense effort. 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.