BY FELIX CAPOTE  
The name Róger Calero is virtually unknown in U.S. mainstream press circles. Nevertheless, he is a prestigious journalist, associate editor of the Spanish language publication Perspectiva Mundial and editorial team member at socialist weekly the Militant.

Calero is also the youngest member on the national committee of the Socialist Workers Party; a position to which he was elected in 2002.

His name was first heard after he was detained on December 3 last year when returning from a reporting assignment in Cuba and Mexico and then imprisoned in a private jail for 10 days.

He had come to Havana to report on an important Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) conference, traveling on to the International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico plus a student conference organized by the Continental Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Students (OCLAE).

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested him on his arrival at Houston, Texas, on his way back from Mexico.

Of Nicaraguan origin, Calero has been in the United States for 17 years (12 as a permanent resident), and is married to a U.S. citizen. Before taking up journalism, he worked as a meat packer in several different plants where he excelled as a union leader.

The immigration police attempted to deny him re-entry to the United States and deport him to Nicaragua, basing their decision on a 1988 conviction when, as a junior high student in Los Angeles, he was accused of selling an ounce of marijuana to an undercover police officer.

At the time, he received a 60-day suspended sentence with 3 years probation, in the course of which he had no other brushes with the law. Two years later, he applied for and received permanent residency without the slightest difficulty.  
 
Private jails: good business
The INS prison in Houston, where Calero was held for 10 days is a private business run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Its website boasts of being the oldest and most important firm of its kind, with shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Houston prison is one of six INS prisons that are operated by firms like the CCA, which has 15 nation-wide. In total, there are 158 penal institutions currently managed by private firms in the United States, the state of Texas, with 42, has the largest number.

The CCA runs 61 jails in 21 states plus the District of Columbia. According to the latest statistics from the Department of Justice, 91,828 people were incarcerated in private jails at the end of 2001.

Calero’s detention and the battle on his behalf after he was freed and threatened with deportation at the end of three months clearly demonstrate current INS anti-immigrant policies.

Thousands of immigrants find themselves in a similar situation to his: detained after returning from family or other visits abroad.

In the last few months the federal government has been collating local courts’ records and including them in the institution’s computer system.

In 2001, the INS processed almost 177,000 individuals and summarily deported 70,000 immigrants.

Calero publicly denounced that tens of thousands of U.S. residents are being subjected to exclusion or deportation based on provisions contained in the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and other reactionary measures.

Many immigrants see this INS policy as a direct threat to the basic rights and freedoms in the Untied States: a free press, the right to travel, and the freedom of political and religious beliefs.

If on March 25 the INS decides, as appears to be its aim, to expel Calero, or whether it accepts the petitions signed by thousands of U.S. citizens and allows him to continue working as a journalist in the United States, a new battle will have been fought.

This is a battle for press freedom and civil rights against the extreme right, who since September have been seeking absolute power in Washington under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Independent of the result, Calero’s case will have served to highlight the persecution currently undertaken in the United States against immigrants, especially those of Latin American origin.  
 
 
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