Tens of thousands of people have begun demonstrating all across the United States in a massive call for millions of illegal immigrants to be granted citizenship. The coordinated demonstrations have been designed to try to force the Senate to act, even as Senators put the final touches to a bill for US immigration reform.
Cheering crowds assembled outside of the Capitol in Washington DC, with over 1,000 also demonstrating in Atlanta. It is expected that lawmakers will soon be unveiling their bill that will offer a pathway to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, with the push for immigration reform having gained momentum in the wake of a spectacular election victory for President Obama where overwhelming support from the Hispanic community spelled doom for the Republican Party.
The great majority of the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States are members of the Hispanic community, and even the Republican Party is now being forced to acknowledge that they have to support immigration reform if they are to have any chance of winning the Hispanic vote in future elections.
Gatherings entitled Rally for Citizenship were staged on Wednesday in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington DC and in several dozen other places, with domestic workers, farm laborers, immigration activists and union leaders all taking place. “We won’t win immigration reform just coming to Washington,” says Ben Monterroso from the Service Employees International Union. “We need to walk the streets all over the country.”