Thousands of people were to take to the streets yesterday in a new wave of demonstrations across the country demanding amnesty for an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants.
Giant crowds are expected in Los Angeles, Washington and dozens of other cities across the US.
The new protests have "incredible importance," said Eliseo Medina, head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and one of the organizers of a march to be held in New York.
"We march in the streets, but we will also march to the voting booth in November," when mid-term elections will be held, said Medina, who emphasized that not all immigrants were undocumented and that many will vote.
On Sunday, an estimated between 350,000 and 500,000 people took part in a march in Dallas, Texas, local media reported.
Thousands also protested on Sunday in New Mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, Alabama, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and California.
"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.
The rallies intend to keep pressure on Congress to reach a compromise on proposed immigration reforms.
The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make illegal entry a crime and step up the building of a barrier on the US-Mexico border.
Efforts in the Senate to agree on a compromise bill, which would open the way for undocumented workers to be legalized, collapsed last week.
A majority of the illegal workers in the US are from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and many Hispanic families with small children joined the Dallas protest.
The demonstrators waved US flags and banners saying "United We Stand. We pray for legal status." or "We are not terrorists."
Several hundred police were on duty but the event was peaceful even though a group of counter-protesters were also out in support of the hardline legislation that passed through the House in December.
Other demonstrations were held in the Texas city of Fort Worth and in Miami, Florida, where about 1,500 people staged a rally to call for a "total amnesty" for undocumented workers who authorities admit do most of the "dirty jobs" that Americans refuse.
The Roman Catholic Church has supported the illegal workers and Archbishop John Favalora addressed the crowd before a march through central Miami.
On Friday the US Senate failed to approve compromise legislation that would have allowed millions of undocumented workers to normalize their status. The chamber has now gone into a two-week April recess.
The chairman of the Senate Jud-iciary Committee, Arlen Specter, said on Sunday that the setback was temporary, and vowed to try again later this month to break the impasse.
"I think when we come back from recess, we'll get a bill," Specter said on Fox News Channel television.
"Everybody agrees there's an enormous problem, and everybody agrees with the border security lines," he said.
"There's general agreement that we have to craft a compromise, and we were very close on Thursday," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese