Washington – Hundreds of thousands of immigrant-rights activists are expected to participate today in a coordinated campaign of nationwide protest that organizers say will be the largest of its kind in U.S. history.
As many as 200,000 protesters are expected on the National Mall in Washington as part of a rally that acquired new urgency among immigrant-rights groups after a compromise bill to overhaul immigration laws collapsed amid partisan battles in the Senate last week.
There are more than 140 events planned in dozens of cities across the country. In Colorado, rallies are planned in Colorado Springs, Telluride and Grand Junction, as well as on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus at 12:30 p.m. A Denver candlelight vigil will be held at the Sloan’s Lake boathouse at 7 p.m.
“It is the largest national mobilization of immigrants in the history of this country,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, coordinator of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, the umbrella group organizing the event in Washington. “The goal is to show Congress and the media and the White House that we can organize ourselves, because we have not been very well organized in the past.”
The protests are backed by an array of immigrant-rights groups – local Hispanic advocacy organizations, labor unions and religious institutions, including the Roman Catholic Church.
The rallies began Sunday, with more than 350,000 people marching peacefully in downtown Dallas, along with smaller demonstrations in San Diego; Miami; Fort Worth, Texas; St. Paul, Minn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Boise, Idaho.
The nationwide demonstrations are taking place as members of Congress return home for a two-week recess. Prospects for legislation are unclear after a deal on a compromise bill favored by many immigrant-rights groups unraveled late last week.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration legislation, said he expected another compromise bill to emerge after the congressional recess.
“I think tempers will cool over a two-week period,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
Other lawmakers questioned whether the protests would have such political force, with some suggesting that the sight of demonstrators waving the flags of Mexico and other countries might alienate voters.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a major proponent of tougher controls and sanctions, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that placing undocumented workers on the path to citizenship was basically an amnesty and would send the wrong message to legal immigrants.
