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Anger At Democrats Fueling Pro-Immigration Protest In DC

While most of the attention in Washington will be on the health care debate this week, both sides of the immigration debate are gearing up for a massive rally on Sunday that pro-reform advocates hope will put the plight of millions of immigrants back on the Washington agenda.

Organizers say more than 50,000 immigrant advocates from across the country will gather on March 21 on the national Mall in DC to demand what organizers say say was a Democratic promise back in 2008 to pursue comprehensive immigration reform. Organizers of the rally say the immigrant community is extremely frustrated by the pace of reform, and worries its agenda will get tossed by the wayside by politicians afraid that taking up the issue will cost them dearly in November.

To that argument, organizers of the rally have a simple retort for Democrats: pass reform now, or lose Latino support in November.

"I cannot tell you how angry and outraged people are," Gabe Gonzalez, lead organizer of the rally told me when I asked him about frustration with Democrats from immigration advocates. "I have conversations with my progressive friends and they're always surprised at how visceral it is."

A spokesperson for America's Voice, one of the groups leading the rally, told me that the pro-reform fervor has led thousands to give up their weekends to cross the country by bus for the D.C. rally. More than 700 buses are expected to roll into the city over the weekend, some from as far away as Chicago.

The name of the rally suggests the frustration of immigration advocates: "Change Takes Courage."

Gonzalez said that the Latino community -- a key proponent of immigration reform -- turned out in huge numbers for Democrats, including President Obama, in 2008 and watched with dismay as their issue slipped further and further down the legislative priority list. Five weeks ago, with the middterms looming, immigration reform advocates realized that they had to act. So they turned to an old playbook. In 2006, millions of immigrants and pro-reform advocates filled the streets across the country to call for comprehensive reform as millions were pouring across America's southern border to seek work.

The issue in 2006 was "criminalization," Gonzalez told me. Back then, the right was pushing for stricter laws that Gonzalez said eventually cost the GOP its chance at the Latino vote. This time around, the concern among immigrant groups is the destruction of families.

"There are thousands of children of immigrants who have nightmares about, you know, 'people coming to take my mom away'" he said. "It's about this real suffering that's going on here -- it's got to stop."

Gonzalez says all immigration advocates want is for the politicians who promised reform to act on that promise. On Sunday, the marchers will call for a blueprint for reform and a timetable for how it will move forward.

"If we don't see those things, people are going to be mad and they're going to express openly who they're mad at," he said when I asked him what the tone of Sunday's rally will be. If Democrats signal they're serious about moving forward with reform, "I don't think you'll see that kind of anger," Gonzalez said. "You'll see a wary willingess to work with them."

Gonzalez said the plan to back to the streets is already working pro-reform advocates.

As the rally looms, there's evidence that he's right. Last week, President Obama met with Latino leaders and assured them that he was still focused on getting reform accomplished. And the two Senators charged with creating the next generation of immigration legislation, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), say they're close to laying out their framework for a new bill.

But it's no secret that the health care debate has taken over the legislative agenda over the past year, leaving little room for any other bills, let alone one likely to be as controversial as immigration reform. Graham has said that health care reform, which Democrats hope to finally pass in the next week, could derail the immigration effort before it starts in earnest.

Gonzalez said immigration reform advocates are not going to take no for an answer. He said that Democratic politicians who fail to advance a reform bill could find themselves without the support of the key Latino constituency in the fall. He acknowledged that most of the political leverage for Latinos comes on the Democratic side of the aisle, which puts pressure on advocates like Gonzalez to move immigration reform forward now or miss their chance if the Republicans do well in the midterms.

"The first marker for us would be a blueprint [for a bill] and a timeline [for debate]," Gonzalez said when I asked him about his goals for Sunday's march. "But we feel like we've created a real momentum here and we're not about to give it up if we get the first bit done."