Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across the country Monday against legislation proposing a crackdown on the estimated 11.5 million migrants working illegally in the United States. Tens of thousands took to the streets of Atlanta, Georgia on Monday a day after up to 500,000 people demonstrated in Dallas, Texas.
About one million people were expected to take to the streets in demonstrations Monday in dozens of cities across the nation, from New York and Washington to Los Angeles.
The rallies are intended to pressure Congress to reach a compromise on controversial 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 a compromise bill, which would open the way for many undocumented workers to be legalised, collapsed last week.
On Sunday, an estimated 350,000-500,000 people took part in a march in Dallas. Another 50,000 demonstrated in San Diego, California, and an estimated 30,000 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Dallas demonstrators waved US flags and banners saying "United We Stand. We pray for legal status" or "We are not terrorists".
The new protests have "incredible importance," said Eliseo Medina, head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and one of the organisers 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 emphasised that not all immigrants were undocumented and that many will vote.
Polls indicate that immigration is becoming a growing concern for mainstream America going into the election campaign.
Three-quarters of Americans believe the government is not doing enough to stop illegal immigration, according to a poll released Monday by The Washington Post and ABC television.
But the authorities also acknowledge that the migrants do low-paid "dirty" jobs that most Americans reject.
A majority of the illegal workers in the United States are from Mexico and other Latin American countries and many Hispanic families are taking their children on the protests.
Hispanics are now the largest US ethnic minority, and are increasingly influential on the political and economic fronts.
Organisers are encouraging demonstrators to wear white T-shirts as a sign that they are peaceful.
A giant US flag was also carried at the Dallas rally, which was peaceful even though a group of counter-protesters were also out in support of the hard-line legislation that passed through the House in December.
On Friday the US Senate failed to approve compromise legislation that would have allowed millions of undocumented workers to normalise their status. The chamber has now gone into a two-week April recess.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, said Sunday that the setback was temporary, and vowed to try again later this month to break the impasse.
"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."
Organisers hope to top the late March protests in 44 US cities, in which they said 1.5 million people took to the streets.
At least 500,000 protested on March 25 in Los Angeles, according to police, though protesters put the number at one million.
President George W. Bush has proposed a plan that would start a "guest worker" programme but it failed to overcome a major split in his Republican Party over immigration reform.
The Senate bill that was shot down would help illegal workers who arrived in the United States at least five years ago, so long as they meet set requirements. Those in the country for more than two years could obtain a temporary work visa after first leaving the country.
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