'La Marcha' Protest Draws 500,000 in Los Angeles

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Outside of Washington, thousands of immigrants have taken to the streets today in rallies and marches all over the country. In California, rallies have taken place in the heart of farm country as well as in Silicon Valley. And another rally is now underway in Los Angeles. NPR's Carrie Kahn has been to that demonstration, and she joins us now. Carrie, tell us what the scene there is like in L.A.

CARRIE KAHN reporting:

Well, I'm in downtown L.A. at La Placita Church, which is right off of historic Alvera Street. The crowd is several hundred people right now, it's taken over both sides of Main Street. As we've seen in other marches around the country, there's lots of American flags waving, a lot of families are here, children, people just getting off of work. We, there's union members, church members.

There's a lot of Spanish Language Media outlets, too, that have booths and food vendors are here. So gives it quite a festival atmosphere. And the crowd right now is listening to the mayor, politicians speaking, and we just heard from L.A.'s Cardinal Roger Mahoney.

SPIEGEL: Now what did Cardinal Mahoney, who is the leader of the largest Catholic archdiocese in the country, what did he say? And, and what message is he sending to the rest of the country by saying it there?

KAHN: Well it was very interesting, the first thing he said to the crowd was if you are waving a flag other than the U.S. flag, roll it up right now. And apparently a lot of people did that. He said we're here to show our support for America, we are part of America and we want to be part of America. So that was an interesting first thought that he had. But he's been a leader in the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops' campaign to promote immigrant rights, and as he has done in most of his Sunday homilies, he asked the crowd to pray that Congress will listen and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

SIEGEL: You covered a huge rally in downtown Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, half a million people. This, I gather, is a much smaller rally, at least so far.

KAHN: Definitely, Robert, very much smaller, though. You couldn't see the end of that march. We're here at the main plaza, and you could pretty much see to the end. But people are getting off work and coming in. The biggest difference that I've noticed, more so, is that there are more organizations coming in and trying to bring out their people. You see a lot of labor unions. I see a lot of placards from the AFLCIO saying liberty and justice for all. People handing out American flags. Other labor unions are here, and of course we're here at the church so you see a lot of church members.

SIEGEL: Do you see any, any Asians or Blacks or Anglos demonstrating alongside the Latinos?

KAHN: A bit different, I did speak to a group of Filipinos that had come out, said they wanted to be heard because they are the second largest immigrant population in California. I saw a Japanese band go by. You do see a little bit, and also the NAACP has brought leaders here. So there is a bit more diversity, but it is overwhelmingly a Latino march.

SIEGEL: Okay, NPR's Carrie Kahn in Los Angeles. Thank you very much, Carrie.

KAHN: You're welcome.

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