Erlinder is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also one of Omar Jamal’s attorneys. Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minnesota, has led a public campaign to stop the deportations of fellow Somalis and to protest the killing of a Somali man by Minneapolis cops. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now attempting to deport Jamal.
Calero, an editor of the Spanish-language monthly magazine Perspectiva Mundial, was invited to address the NLG conference as the guest speaker at a Saturday lunch held at the Drake University Law Clinic.
Michael Worrall, law student and co-chair of the Drake University NLG, the conference host, introduced Calero to the gathering. Worrall described Calero’s arrest and subsequent attempts by U.S. immigration authorities to deport him.
"The use of many of the laws against immigrants, including the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, adopted under the William Clinton administration, has deepened the attacks against all workers," Calero told the participants. "The police agencies of the U.S. government can now deport you on the most minor of convictions going back decades. By applying these laws retroactively, Washington has deported tens of thousands of immigrants.
"These laws have nothing whatsoever to do with eliminating ‘terrorism’ or promoting ‘democracy,’" Calero said. "The employers and their government are simply using them to justify divisions among working people and making it more difficult for workers to resist the bosses’ takeback demands and unify and look for allies."
Caroline Palmer, president of the Minnesota NLG, gave a presentation on "The New McCarthyism." She gave an overview of Washington’s domestic counterintelligence programs from the mid 1940s to the present day. Spying and disruption have been used to intimidate, discredit, and disrupt political individuals, their organizations, and activities, she said.
"The targets of the FBI and other police agencies in the 1960s and 1970s included the American Indian Movement, the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, Black nationalist groups, and other organizations that were active against the U.S. war on Vietnam and against fascist organizations, and groups that supported women and gay rights and environmental issues."
"Bringing those government police disruption tactics up to date," Palmer continued, "the New York City Police Department created a database that includes information about prior political activity of those who protested against the war in Iraq at the New York Feb. 15, 2003, demonstration. Some of those arrested at that rally were asked where they went to school, their membership in any organizations, and involvement in past protest.
"The executive branch of the federal government is using its power more frequently to go around Congress and the Constitution, especially since Sept. 11, 2001," said Erlinder. "But history has shown that the people of the United States will confront such policies."
The antidemocratic laws and policies Washington is using today have their foundations "prior to 9/11," Calero stated. "The bosses and their government know that working people will resist and defend the gains of the past. Many workers will refuse to subordinate their struggles to help the employers make more profit off our backs."
Calero described the strike by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538 members in Jefferson, Wisconsin, as one such example.
Calero encouraged participants "to get involved in supporting these workers and other struggles that will reinforce the fights of working people today and better prepare us for the bigger battles coming in the near future."
Other speakers included Ben Stone, executive director of Iowa’s Civil Liberties Union; Allison Brown, regional attorney, Justice For Our Neighbors; and Ed Leahy, coordinator of Immigrant Rights Network of Iowa-Nebraska. These groups have recently endorsed the Róger Calero Defense Committee.
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For more information or to send a contribution:
Róger Calero Defense Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007; phone/ fax, (212)563-0585. On the web: www.calerodefense.org Send messages demanding exclusion moves against Calero be dropped to: Demetrios Georgakopolous, Director, Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Fax messages to: (973) 645-3074; or mail to: 970 Broad St., Newark, NJ 07102. Copies should be sent to the Róger Calero Defense Committee. |