Sep 3, 2006 10:37 pm US/Central

50-Mile Immigration March Ends Labor Day
Most Pariticpants Are Latino, But Marchers Come From Around The Globe

(CBS) CHICAGO A four day long, 40-mile immigration march and fight for immigration reform is scheduled to end on Labor Day.

About 500 marchers started in Chicago's Chinatown Aug. 31 and they're heading to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's office in Batavia.

So far, the marchers have gone through Cicero, Villa Park, West Chicago, and other suburbs. Participants want Hastert to push for the stalled immgration proposals in Congress.

Hastert isn't expected to be in his office when the marchers arrive Monday.

While the majority of marchers are Latino, the demonstration has featured immigrants from South Korea, India, the Philippines, and many other countries.

The march symbolizes the time it takes Mexican immigrants to cross the desert to safety over the border – a line that some lawmakers, including Hastert, want to see under much tighter security.

Organizers said they chose Hastert's Batavia office as the march's ultimate destination to highlight what they say are his anti-immigration positions. Hastert has suggested fences, pedestrian inhibitors and the use of the Army Corps of Engineers and Border Patrol could be used to help seal the country's border with Mexico.

The march began in Chinatown to the beat of a Chinese drum. Marchers said they chose the Chinatown to demonstrate that this country is a nation of immigrants and that many of them feel the pain of waiting for years at a time for relatives to gain permission to come to the United States and make their families whole again.

Many of the participants have waited years for family members to gain permission to come to the United States.

“For the Asian community, this is about family unification,” said Filipino-American marcher Lawrence Benito, whose mother moved here decades ago to work as a nurse. “My mother has been waiting 23 years for her brother to come here.”

“We're marching because there are over one million Asian-Americans who are also undocumented; we're marching because hundreds of thousands of Asian-American families are separated,” said Becky Belcore of the Korean-American Resource and Cultural Center.

The marchers trekked through the Little Village neighborhood on the Near Southwest Side, and entered Cicero later on Friday. They made their first overnight stop there, and gathered in a church parking lot, where they heard Bible verses read in five languages.

They want immigration reform, something that has reached a stalemate in Washington.

Hastert, whose district includes some of Chicago's suburbs and outlying rural counties, has been emphasizing the immigration issue in making the case to voters that they should keep Congress in GOP hands.

“In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans are working together; the president is willing to work with the Democrats on this,” said Joshua Hoyt of the Immigration Coalition. ”Speaker Hastert decided that he wants to use this for short-term, cheap, political advantage.”

Brad Hahn, a spokesman for Hastert, said that the speaker is not planning to meet with the marchers and is not planning on even being in his office Monday. But he said Hastert is focused on the issue, has talked to people on all sides of the debate and has visited the United States-Mexico border.

"It's important to note it isn't a question of who can yell the loudest, but finding the most effective solutions to securing the borders and strengthening our immigration system," Hahn said.

In Little Village, the protestors were welcomed by hundreds of supporters, including several priests.

“Many families that I know in my own parish, they've been waiting 12, 15, 17 years,” said Fr. Peter McQuinn of Priests for Justice for Immigrants. “And, you know, so it's just like why is it taking so long?”

But the marchers are not going unchallenged. Opponents with the Illinois Minutemen are at several stops along the route.

“We're outraged at them. We've been outraged for years!” said Carl Segvich of the Chicago Minutemen Project.

Segvich said all illegal immigrants should be arrested and kicked out of the country.

“We will be destroyed from within, and that's what we're witnessing sadly, tragically today. We're being invaded and taken over by illegal aliens,” he said.

Hundreds more immigrants joined the procession as it traveled through Melrose Park and Wheaton.

The march is sponsored by Miller Beer.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_245085148.html