Immigration Reform 2013 News: As May Day Protestors Demand Change, New Report Says Illegal U.S. Border Crossings Rise

In the backdrop of hundreds of thousands of protesters across the U.S. protesting on Wednesday during May Day as they called for immigration reform, a new report released this month says that more people are entering the U.S. illegally.

From Concord, N.H. to New York City to San Francisco, demonstrators in dozens of cities nationwide took to the streets to demand that Washington pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Protests even turned violent in Seattle after a peaceful immigration march degenerated into a brawl with police who were pelted with bottles and rocks; 13 arrests were made. In New York, some pro-immigration demonstrators protested against the Gang of Eight's current plan, calling it unjust and adding that the requirements in the 13-year pathway to citizenship proposed in the bill were unreasonable due to many immigrants working in transitory jobs which don't keep employment records.

"I speak for most immigrants when I say the gang of 8 is doing a bill that will give us almost nothing," Carlos Canales, a community organizer from Freehold, N.J., told Yahoo! News. "It's going to end up to be an elitist immigration reform."

Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Mexico border, more people are attempting to get into the U.S. than in previous months this year.

According to CBS News, border patrol agents stationed in the Rio Grande sector estimated that the number of apprehensions at the border rose from 2,800 in January to 7,500 in March.

According to local news website The Monitor.com, roughly 4,800 people were arrested at the Rio Grande sector in February. And at one point, agents in McAllen had caught nearly 900 people trying to cross over a three-day period in March.

Agent and union representative Chris Cabrera told CBS News that some of the people agents apprehend come as far away as Brazil, drawn by the improving U.S. economy. According to Cabrera, the impression among many was that the immigration reforms being discussed in Washington could allow them to stay in the country.

"The people in Washington think they have this idea that the border is safe, the border is secure," Cabrera said. "I think they need to come down here and take a look."

The issue of border security has been a thorny one in the negotiations for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Many conservatives have complained about the problems with securing the border for years. As part of the "Gang of Eight" plan, provisions in the bill insist that the border be secured before immigrants living illegally in the U.S. can be considered for a pathway to citizenship.

Both sides on the issue are already starting to push on their views over the issue now that the compromise senate bill has been submitted to the House.

Complicating matters further are the recent Boston Marathon bombings on April 16, in which the two suspects-one dead, one arrested-accused of the bombings were found to be Chechen immigrants. Some Republican legislators are calling for the bill to be either delayed or at least not rushed, while supporters of the bill, including legislators in the bipartisan senate panel that submitted the bill, are accusing the other side of stalling on the bill and using the tragedies in Boston as an excuse.