Immigrant-rights marches draw smaller crowds

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Demonstrators marched in cities across the United States on Tuesday to demand rights for illegal immigrants, but the demonstrations were much smaller than last year's massive rallies, which were hailed as the start of a new American civil rights movement.

May Day marchers waved U.S. and Mexican flags and said they were angry about raids to nab illegal workers and Congress' failure to grant them amnesty. Some said they were hoping to send a message to Washington as it prepared to take up immigration reform again before the 2008 presidential election.

In Los Angeles, where an estimated 500,000 protesters poured into the streets last year for boisterous pro-immigrant rallies, about 10,000 people converged on City Hall for a noon protest.

"Being here for so long, working for so many years, paying taxes for so many years, going to school for so many years and not being able to exist, basically, I'm a ghost," said Isaias Gonzalez, who said he came to the United States from Acapulco illegally in 1989.

Gonzalez, 39, who owns a furniture repair business, said he would like to become a permanent resident but the U.S. immigration system made it seem impossible.

Despite the smaller turnout, Los Angeles organizer Guillermo Torres was not discouraged. "We're motivated by the cause and that the message gets heard," he said.

In Chicago, tens of thousands of marchers poured into downtown in a human wave stretching for blocks, filling streets from curb to curb and spilling onto the sidewalks.

"All Are Equal," Stop Dividing Families" and "Stop the Raids," said some of the signs -- the last reflecting resentment over a recent FBI raid on an illegal document service in a Latino shopping district in Chicago.

The crowd was significantly smaller than last year and almost entirely Hispanic, compared to a year ago on the same route where other nationalities were prominently visible.

In Milwaukee, some 30,000 to 60,000 demonstrators marched to a park on Lake Michigan, according to media reports there.

'OUR COMMUNITY IS FEARFUL'

Hundreds of people turned out for a rally in New York City's Union Square.

"We came from another country because there was not work, no money and a lot of poverty," said William Izquierdo, 27, a New Jersey electrician who arrived from Ecuador seven years ago.

"We want to do things legally. There has to be a plan, there has to be a way, that we can come over here and work and we can come and go," he said.

Marchers also turned out in Denver and Phoenix to demand better treatment for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

In Washington, more than 100 demonstrators marched to demand immigration reform and criticizing raids which they said had taken immigrant parents away from their children.

"Nobody wants their kids to come home and not find their parents. Our community is fearful," organizer Jaime Contreras said.

The latest rallies come as U.S. lawmakers seek to write an immigration bill that would provide tougher border control and workplace enforcement while addressing the status of illegal immigrants.

Federal legislation to create a "guest-worker" program and offer many illegal immigrants eventual citizenship failed last year in the face of stiff opposition from Republicans.

U.S. officials and lawmakers remained divided on chances for immigration legislation in coming weeks.

"I think there is a reasonably good chance (that a law will be passed) but I don't want to underestimate the challenges," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told

CNN.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor and David Schwartz in Phoenix, Mike Conlon in Chicago, Jeremy Pelofsky and Paul Eckert in Washington and Michelle Nichols in New York.)