After immigration reform legislation bogged down in Washington, D.C., last week, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets from New York to San Diego on April 10. In city after city, throngs of immigrants and their American-born friends and supporters massed to push Congress to offer a legal citizenship pathway to millions of undocumented, mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants who have poured into the U.S. over the past several years. The mood in the streets Monday was one of stalwart solidarity, with American flags outnumbering all others by an overwhelming margin. By contrast, attempts at finding common ground on Capitol Hill split last week along partisan fault lines.
Supporters of comprehensive legislation to reform the nation’s immigration laws vowed to revisit the issue after a bipartisan proposal fell apart last week.