WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights activists are expected to participate today in a coordinated campaign of nationwide protest that organizers say will be the largest of its kind in the nation's history.
As many as 200,000 protesters are expected on the National Mall in Washington as part of a rally that acquired new urgency among immigrant rights groups after a compromise bill to overhaul immigration laws collapsed amid partisan rancor in the Senate last week.
The protest in the nation's capital is one of more than 140 planned in dozens of cities. Organizers said the anticipated turnout in Washington could be matched in New York and Los Angeles.
"It is the largest national mobilization of immigrants in the history of this country," said Juan Carlos Ruiz, coordinator of the National Capital Immigrant Coalition, the umbrella group organizing the event in Washington. "The goal is to show Congress and the media and the White House that we can organize ourselves, because we have not been very well organized in the past."
Organizers expect the turnout nationally to approach 2 million, Ruiz said.
From Chico to San Diego, 21 demonstrations are planned in California. In Southern California, they include a rally at the federal building in Santa Ana at noon and candlelight vigils in the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles emerged as the epicenter of the resurgent immigrant rights movement last month when 500,000 marchers, by police estimate, flooded streets around City Hall in opposition to legislation, passed by the House late last year, that would crack down on the estimated 11 million to 12 million people in the United States illegally.
Organizers said they did not expect a turnout of that magnitude today.
The protests, dubbed the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice, are backed by an array of immigrant rights groups -- Latino advocacy organizations, labor unions and religious institutions, including the Roman Catholic Church.
Rallies Sunday included a peaceful march in downtown Dallas, where police estimated the crowd at 350,000 to 500,000. In San Diego, about 50,000 demonstrators gathered at Balboa Park and marched through the streets to a county administration building, police said; no arrests were reported.
Other demonstrations were held in Fort Worth; Miami; St. Paul, Minn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Des Moines; St. Louis; Salem, Ore.; and Boise, Idaho.
