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More Than 100,000 Rally For Immigrants' Rights

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(AP) LOS ANGELES Tens of thousands of immigrant rights advocates from across Southern California jammed downtown to march Saturday in protest of federal legislation that would build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border and make helping illegal immigrants a crime.

Protesters, many with their families and wearing white shirts symbolizing peace, came from as far away as Riverside County for a mass rally. They thronged the steps of City Hall, perched in trees and sat atop bus kiosks, chanting "Mexico!" "U.S.A.!" and "Si se puede," an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means "Yes, we can."

The crowd was estimated at 100,000 and growing at noon, police Sgt. Lee Sands said. There were no arrests or injuries.

Police and rally organizers worked for weeks to arrange crowd and traffic control. Orange-shirted ushers helped guide the crowd, which held signs saying "Amnistia" and "Loving my family is not a felony."

It was the largest of a series of school walkouts and work stoppages that were held Friday and Saturday around the country. They are expected to culminate in a "National Day of Action" April 10 organized by labor, immigration, civil rights and religious groups.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The Senate is to begin debating the proposals on Tuesday.

President Bush on Saturday called for legislation that does not force America to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful one.

"America is a nation of immigrants, and we're also a nation of laws," Bush said in his weekly radio address about the emotional immigration issue that has driven a wedge into his party.

Bush sides with business leaders who want legislation to let some immigrants stay in the country and work for a set period of time. Others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, say national security concerns should drive immigration reform.

"They say we are criminals. We are not criminals," said Salvador Hernandez, 43, of Los Angeles, who brought his wife and four children and carried a full-sized, blue-and-white Salvadoran flag.

Now a resident alien, Hernandez came to the United States 14 years ago illegally from El Salvador and has worked as a truck driver, painter and day laborer.

"We want to work legally, so we can pay our taxes and support the country, our country," said Francisco Flores, 27, a wood flooring installer from Santa Clarita who is a former illegal immigrant.

Arguments that the U.S. must tighten its borders as a security measure in an age of terrorism didn't play with the crowd.

"It's sugar-coating racism," said David Gonzalez, 22, of Moreno Valley.

"How is that making the border safer?" he asked. "When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Center? Who do you think built the World Trade Center?"

In Phoenix on Friday, police said 20,000 demonstrators marched to the office of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, co-sponsor of a bill that would step up enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border and create a temporary guest-worker program that would require illegals to leave after five years. The turnout clogged major thoroughfares in what officials said was one of the largest protests in the city's history.

In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs Friday after calls for a work stoppage to protest a bill passed by the Georgia House on Thursday.

That bill, which has yet to gain Georgia Senate approval, would deny state services to adults living in the U.S. illegally and impose a 5 percent surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)