Thousands Of People Rally In Seattle Today Against Controversial Arizona Immigration Law

SEATTLE - Right now, that controversial immigration bill that the state of Arizona just passed is still in place, but, if the millions who took to the streets across the Country today have it their way it will be gone forever. One of those huge protest rallies was held in Seattle.

All of the protesters marched from Judkins Park in the Central District all the way down to Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center for a huge rally to demand immigration reform.

Under gray skies on this Saturday the streets of Seattle came alive with color and passion as thousands of people marched for a single purpose.

"We want immigration reform to get the rights for all the people to work together."

Many carried signs and waved American flags as a show of solidarity for immigrant rights. But, it was anger over Arizona's controversial immigration law that made the most noise. It got Oscar Cea fired up.

"What they're doing in Arizona, they're being racist cause they're only stopping people that look Hispanic and there's lots of immigrants here," said Cea.

A new Arizona law would require authorities to stop and question people about their immigration status if they suspect they could be in the country illegally. Lawmakers say they need the law because the federal one isn't protecting their borders.

In May Day Rally's all across the nation for worker and immigrant rights protesters blasted the law calling it unconstitutional. In California, 100,000 people spoke out against it in the streets of Los Angeles.

"It's not enough to say it's broken we need action."

In Seattle, today's march ended with a rally at Memorial Stadium where church leaders, immigrant rights and labor groups, plus local politicians like Representative Jim McDermott and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn denounced Arizona's new immigration rules.

"This new law not only permits racial profiling, but actually encourages it," said McDermott.

"In Seattle we will not stand for fear," said McGinn.

Ultimately, some people like Tracey Thompson with Teamsters Local 117 believe it's be up to our leaders in Washington D.C. to unite our country under a new immigration policy.

"What we need is national immigration reform and we need leadership on that issue, we need Obama to step forward on that," said Thompson.

Today's rally in Seattle was one of nine events taking place in our state. There were only a few counter protestors at the Seattle rally. Seattle Police say there were no reports of problems during the protest.
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