With the date of the INS hearing postponed, campaigners now have a little more time to build on the work that has been done so far. The list of letters of protest sent to the INS by union fighters and defenders of democratic rights is steadily growing. Meetings organized by Calero supporters during his speaking tour are drawing a range of speakers with a real record of involvement in struggle.

The campaign has become connected with other resistance to government abuses, like the fight by Farouk Abdel-Muhti against his imprisonment without charges and threatened deportation. Calero and Abdel-Muhti have exchanged messages of solidarity--most recently when Calero protested the Palestinian fighter’s forcible transfer to a high-security Pennsylvania jail. Calero has similarly been in touch with the five Cuban revolutionaries who have been recently thrown into solitary confinement.

Calero’s supporters will find new adherents to his anti-deportation fight along the natural lines of working-class resistance to assaults by the bosses and their government. Workers on picket lines or other actions to push back takeback demands by the employers, and students and other youth joining antiwar protests in the tens of thousands, are among those who will respond.

The defense effort can flourish from the churches, to plant gates, to the campuses. Although immigrant workers are among the quickest to express solidarity, this is not exclusively a question of immigrant rights. Broader layers of working people can recognize their common interests in fighting such abuses and defending hard-won gains. Many are particularly outraged by the way the INS is using old convictions, no matter how minor or how many years have elapsed, as grounds for harassment and deportation.

The defense committee has mapped a course for Calero’s supporters to follow. They can invite him or other representatives of the defense committee to visit, meet potential supporters, and speak alongside others at public meetings. They can accelerate their efforts to inform new people about the case, and to encourage them to write letters to the INS and sign petitions demanding restoration of Calero’s rights. Until details of the new hearing, including the responsible INS officials, are known, such letters and petitions should continue to be sent to the INS office in Houston.

Raising funds--from individuals to events like the successful dinner just held in Chicago--is an essential part of keeping the campaign viable over the long term. Whatever the outcome, Calero and his supporters can extract the maximum political price from the government and its immigration cops through such a multifaceted effort.

Join the campaign to stop the deportation of Róger Calero!
 
 
Related articles:
Workers in Detroit back fight to stop Calero’s deportation
Youth leaders back antideportation fight
Ohio students support Calero fight
International youth leaders discuss response to imperialist war  
 
 
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