500,000 protest against US immigration proposals

THOUSANDS of immigration advocates marched though downtown Los Angeles in one of the largest demonstrations for any cause in recent US history.

More than 500,000 protesters demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border surprised police who estimated the crowd size using aerial photographs and other techniques, police commander Louis Gray Jr said.

Wearing white T-shirts to symbolise peace, the demonstrators chanted "Mexico!" "USA!" and "Si se puede," an old Mexican-American civil rights shout that means "Yes, we can."

In Denver, more than 50,000 people protested downtown Saturday, according to police who had expected only a few thousand. Phoenix was similarly surprised Friday when an estimated 20,000 people gathered for one of the biggest demonstrations in city history, and more than 10,000 marched in Milwaukee on Thursday.

"We construct your schools. We cook your food," rapper Jorge Ruiz said after performing at a Dallas rally that drew 1,500. "We are the motor of this nation, but people don't see us. Blacks and whites, they had their revolution. They had their Martin Luther King. Now it is time for us."

Many protesters said lawmakers were unfairly targeting immigrants who provide a major labour pool for America's economy.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the US illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along one-third of the US-Mexico border.