By Anabelle Garay
Associated Press
Monday, April 10, 2006

DALLAS, April 9 -- Hundreds of thousands of people banged drums, waved U.S. flags and marched in a protest Sunday urging federal lawmakers to pass immigration reform that would legalize an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

The marchers included families pushing strollers with their children and ice cream vendors who placed U.S. flags on their carts. Many marchers wore white clothing to symbolize peace.

Police estimated the crowd here at 350,000 to 500,000. There were no reports of violence.

It was among several demonstrations that drew thousands of protesters Sunday in Alabama, California, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.

"If we don't protest, they'll never hear us," said Oscar Cruz, 23, a construction worker who marched among the estimated 50,000 in San Diego. Cruz, who came illegally to the United States in 2003, said he had feared a crackdown but felt emboldened by the large marches in recent weeks across the country.

In Birmingham, demonstrators marched along the same streets where civil rights activists clashed with police during the 1960s and rallied at a park where a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands as a reminder of the fight for equal rights and the violence that once plagued the city.

"We've got to get back in touch with the Statue of Liberty," said the Rev. Lawton Higgs, a United Methodist pastor and activist. "We've got to get back in touch with the civil rights movement because that's what this is about."

Organizers in St. Paul, Minn., were surprised by the crowd calling for change at a rally at the state Capitol. Police estimated the gathering at 30,000.

The rallies also drew counter-demonstrators.

In Salt Lake City, Jerry Owens, a Navy veteran from Midway, Utah, wearing a blue Minuteman T-shirt and camouflage pants, held a yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flag.

"I think it's real sad because these people are really saying it's okay to be illegal aliens," Owens, 59, said. "What Americans are saying is 'Yes, come here. But come here legally.' And I think that's the big problem."

Sunday's demonstrations preceded nationwide protests set weeks ago for Monday, a signal that what began as a string of disparate events -- attracting tens and even hundreds of thousands of people -- has become more coordinated.

"We don't have a leader like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez, but this is now a national immigrant rights movement," said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which has helped organize Chicago area rallies.

Activists say the Senate's decision last week not to push a bill that would have given many illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship is neither a cause for celebration nor a lost opportunity -- it's a chance to regroup.

Voter registration and citizenship education initiatives are set to begin in several states after a "Day Without an Immigrant" campaign planned for May 1, an event that asks immigrants nationwide to stay home from work and school, and refrain from making purchases.

"Marches will only get you so far," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, a network of Hispanic activist groups in Southern California. "There has to be an electoral component to get the Republicans out of the majority."