Immigrant Organizers Planning Rally To Coincide With Others Around Country

Immigrant organizers say activism is rising in New York as they attempt to catch up with the national demonstrations that have drawn hundreds of thousands in recent weeks.

The largest local rally is expected to take place Monday, when, in coordination with similar mobilizations in scores of cities across the nation, immigrants will march from many points and converge at City Hall.

Participants are being urged to dress in red, white, and blue and to carry American flags to avoid criticism that they are displaying anti-American sentiment. Also planned are walkouts from city universities.

The march - organized by a broad coalition of labor, business, immigrant, and church groups collectively called the A-10 NYC Mobilization Network for Immigrant Rights - will be a chance for New York's immigrants to show their political muscle.

In the past couple of weeks, immigrants in Chicago and Los Angeles staged major protests that were boosted by support from the Catholic Church and Spanish radio and press outlets. All told, more than half a million people turned out on the streets to protest against a House bill that would make an immigrant's illegal status a felony. New York, meanwhile, has had no public gatherings that rival that turnout.

This week, the Senate has worked through tense negotiations in an attempt to rework America's immigration laws for the first time in two decades. The immigrants staging demonstrations are clear about what they want: Primary among their demands are a path to legalization for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, more visas for family members, and no criminalization of illegal immigrants.

Immigrant groups in the city have pressed Mayor Bloomberg to participate in the rally and to show his support for the cause. So far, both the mayor and his commissioner of immigrant affairs, Guillermo Linares, have said only that they are considering participating.The mayor, however, has chimed into the national debate, saying he supports a legalization program as well as stepped-up enforcement.

On Monday, the action should start early, with students planning to walk out of classes at City University of New York and other public colleges. Coordination of the walkout via text messages, e-mails, and student Web sites such asFacebook.comhas been under way for about a week. A student organizer, Marisol Ramos, 21, said she expects many to join the walkout spontaneously on Monday.