Pro-immigration activists took to the streets of Chicago on Friday, in the first of a week of marches nationwide to step up pressure on a returning U.S. Congress to move forward with a stalled immigration overhaul, according to Reuters. Dozens of marchers waving U.S., Mexican and other flags set off from Chinatown, at the start of a four-day trek to the district offices in Batavia, Ill., of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican. Organizers said they planned to make the 50-mile (80 km) trek in stages, holding rallies along the way. They hope to pressure Hastert to push a bill favorable to immigrants through the U.S. Congress after it returns from recess on Sept. 5. The rally marks the start of renewed demonstrations by pro-immigration activists, hundreds of thousands of whom thronged the streets of cities from California to New England on May 1, demanding measures to bring 11-12 million illegal immigrants in from the shadows. The Senate has since passed a package combining tighter border security with a guest worker program and a plan offering many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, while the House voted through a measure focusing just on enforcement. Activists plan further street rallies across the United States over the Sept. 3-5 Labor Day weekend to ramp up pressure on lawmakers to break the impasse, with marches planned in Portland, Ore., Phoenix, Ariz., and Knoxville, Tenn., in coming days. The week of action culminates on Sept. 7 with a march through Washington that organizers hope will attract one million participants from across the eastern United States and galvanize lawmakers and U.S. President George W. Bush to reach a deal. "We want to make sure that both Congress and the administration takes on board how important immigration reform is, not just to immigrants, but to all Americans," said Jaime Contreras, the president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, which is organizing the rally. "We need a pragmatic solution to this problem to allow people to come out of the shadows in an orderly fashion," he added.
