In the shadow of the March on Washington, pro-immigration supporters across the nation this past weekend staged several marches, demonstrations and vigils in efforts to get Congress to support immigration reform.
In Wisconsin, dozens of people gathered at Riverside Park in Janesville for an immigration reform rally. The event in Wisconsin--which has hundreds of thousands of Latinos, one of the largest and fastest-growing minority groups in the state--was organized by Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee-based labor and social justice organization.
State Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, was among several state legislators that attended the event calling for immigration reform.
"Unless there are some Native Americans, we're all immigrants here," Cullen told the crowd, as reported by Wisconsin publication Gazette Extra.com.
Several similar rallies were held throughout the state in order to keep the push alive for the Senate's proposal for immigration reform--which would strengthen border security and create a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
Elsewhere in Grand Rapids, Mich., hundreds of protesters flooded the streets as they headed to Lincoln Park and the Kent county GOP office, the crowd of local residents making their voices known to state legislators about wanting immigration reform passed.
"We know that we are close to immigration reform and there are just a few hold outs so to speak, we need to move this forward," Joyce Annhertzig, one of the protesters, told NBC affiliate WOOD TV.
Protesters said they were hoping that at the very least, their actions would start serious conversation regarding the controversial issue of immigration reform, which has put Democrats at odds with republicans, and even divided the GOP as an internal debate simmers between republican legislators both for and against changing the nation's immigration laws.
"To question if they indeed line up with our values, right now, our immigration system doesn't but we have the opportunity to make it so it does," said Jordan Bruxvort.
The chairman of the Kent County GOP, not named in the WOOD TV story but listed under the organization's official website as Chris Beckering, told the station that his office supported the current legal immigration path to citizenship and does not support the idea of granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants who come to the country illegally.
With the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, which was led by black civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., immigration advocates were hoping to use the message of Dr. King's call for equality in their fight to reform the nation's immigration system.
"At the core, we are talking about the same thing," Clarissa Martinez de Castro, the director of immigration policy for Hispanic civil rights organization National Council of La Raza, told NBC Politics. "This is a conversation about the value of a person. It was the core of the conversation then, and it is the core of the conversation now."
Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, added that the desire of immigrants to be granted citizenship is one that African Americans can understand.
"As a community we are especially sensitive to issues involving incorporating individuals into the American system that don't provide full citizenship," he added.
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