ATLANTA (AP):
DEMONSTRATORS TOOK to the streets across the United States yesterday in support of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and legislation that could give them legal residence in the country.
Yesterday's events - planned as a national day of action billed as a "campaign for immigrants' dignity" - were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, one day after a march in Dallas saw at least 350,000 protesters come out.
Protesters are calling for laws that make it easier for illegal immigrants to settle permanently and legally.
The debate has split Congress, where legislation to overhaul immigration law has stalled. Some lawmakers back U.S. President George W. Bush's guest-worker plan, while others take a harder-line stance, arguing that illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans already here.
MONDAY PROTEST
At a yesterday's protest in Atlanta, Carlos Carrera, a construction worker from Mexico, held a banner that read: "We are not criminals. Give us a chance for a better life."
"We would like them to let us work with dignity. We want to progress along with this country," said Carrera, who has been in the United States for 20 years.
Nineth Castillo, a 26-year-old waitress from Guatemala, said she has lived in the United States for 11 years "without a scrap of paper."
Asked whether she was afraid to parade her undocumented status in front of a massive police presence, she laughed and said: "Why? They kick us out, we're coming back tomorrow."
In North Carolina, hundreds of Latinos prepared to skip work or boycott all purchases on Monday to demonstrate the financial impact of the Latino community on area businesses. In Charlotte, some employees planned to skip work, including some with the blessing of their Latino bosses.
"We're hoping that employers stop to consider what this is all about," organiser Adriana Galvez said. "That if you need people here to do the work, to buy, then give them a legal channel to get here."
In Dallas, where a march Sunday drew between 350,000 and 500,000 people, activists also were urging immigrants to showcase their spending power by not buying anything during an economic boycott. Rallies also were planned Monday in Houston, El Paso and Austin.
Several hundred people gathered in Lexington, Kentucky, where demonstrators waved American flags and signs that read "We were all immigrants once," and "We are not terrorists."
The demonstrations Monday followed a day of rallies in 10 states. In Salt Lake City, 20,000 turned out on Sunday, far more than expected, police said, and 50,000 rallied in San Diego. Other demonstrations were held in Minnesota, New Mexico, Michigan, Iowa, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho.
In Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrators marched along the same streets where civil rights activists clashed with police in 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.
The rallies also drew counter-demonstrators.
In Salt Lake City, Jerry Owens, 59, a Navy veteran from Midway 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 OK to be illegal aliens," Owens said. "What Americans are saying is 'Yes, come here. But come here legally.' And I think that's the big problem."
