Frustrated and upset, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of downtown Miami Saturday to rally for immigration reform -- and against a controversial new Arizona law that requires authorities to question people about immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.
Critics say the law legalizes racial profiling and violates civil rights. The Miami protesters, along with those holding similar, coordinated May Day rallies in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, agreed.
"There was unanimous sentiment nationally and locally that we have to mobilize strong on May 1," Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles told the L.A. Times. "It's a message to President Obama that we want immigration reform and an end to massive deportations of our community."
In Los Angeles, where a whopping 60,000 people turned out, many wore shirts reading "We Are All Arizona."
In New York, protester Iztel Delgado told NBC that the law “takes away the pride in people. Is it bad to look Mexican? Nobody should be stopped because they look a certain way."
In Miami, protesters threw gardening spades and brooms off a flatbed truck serving as a stage. They said those items -- tools of jobs usually filled by immigrants -- could be evidence of that "reasonable suspicion."
"Immigrants are not criminals," one Miami marcher said. "We are students, we're workers, we're young people, we're families."
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Supporters say the law strengthens border security, calling it a necessity because Washington hasn't done enough to fix immigration issues. But Duane Swilley, who pastors a Miami church with congregants from over 40 nations, disagreed.
"Those are not laws built on justice; those were built out of fear,'' he said in the Miami Herald. "And nothing based on fear ever lasted.''
