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.
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