While Monday's protest march through Yuma streets was intended to draw attention to immigration reform, it may also have created some backlash.

"If you want to become an American citizen, you don't march up and down the street waving a foreign flag and shouting slogans in Spanish," said Donna Anaya. "That is not how you become an American."

Anaya, whose husband is the son of immigrants, said she is worried that the Yuma march and other national protests are starting to spur hard feelings over the issue and stir up anti-immigration sentiment.

"It's like it's pitting Americans against Mexicans, and that's not the way it's supposed to be," she said. "It's just a big mess."

Monday's march, which drew an estimated 1,500 people, was part of nationally organized events across the country to protest immigration-reform legislation.

Informally known as the "Day Without Immigrants," the marchers called for supporters to walk off their jobs and not to spend money. It was intended to demonstrate the economic impact of immigrants on the workforce and show off immigrants' buying power.

The marches, according to organizers, are a way to show support for immigration reform which includes giving an estimated 12 million illegal aliens
already in this country amnesty.

However, it protests reform that would build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and legislation that would make being in the country a federal felony offense.

John Mitchell, owner of Bubba's BBQ, flew the U.S. flag at his business upside-down Monday morning. Flying a flag upside-down is an international sign of distress.

Mitchell said he did so, not as a counterprotest, but to call attention to how insecure the country's borders and coasts are.

"The government has done a poor job," Mitchell said. "And politicians have done little to nothing about it because it's not politically correct and they don't want to alienate any potential voters."

"I'm surprised our government is so far behind in acknowledging illegal immigration is a problem," Anaya said. "I don't think our government sees this
a serious threat, but it is."

Both Mitchell and Anaya admitted what bothered them the most about Monday's march through Yuma was that many protesters carried the Mexican flag instead of the U.S. flag in support of their cause.

"When I see flags from a foreign country being waved in protest I don't see immigration, I see an invasion and the start of anarchy," Mitchell said.

Mitchell and Anaya — whose husband's father immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and her mother immigrated from China — also said that the U.S. has always been open to immigration, but that it must be done legally.

"There are ways of doing it legally instead of rushing the border," Anaya said. "We need major immigration reform, not amnesty."

Flash Sharrar, who founded the Yuma Patriots border watch group, said he watched the march from the corner of 4th Avenue and 19th Street. He said that the protest made him angry.

"It made me mad. I'm sure it made a lot of people mad. What are they protesting?" Sharrar said. "They are here illegally. They are law breakers."

Sharrar said he also blames the government for the problems along the border, adding immigration laws have to change to make becoming a citizen easier.

"I understand the struggle to get legal status, but the laws need to change, and that is where the government has failed," Sharrar said.