http://www.nbc5i.com/news/8575955/detail.html

Immigration Reform Protests End Peacefully
POSTED: 1:01 pm CDT April 9, 2006
UPDATED: 5:37 pm CDT April 9, 2006



DALLAS -- Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the streets of downtown Dallas on Sunday to protest immigration reform proposals at City Hall.

Organizers expected more than 50,000 people to march through the city to ask for immigration laws that include legalizing millions of undocumented workers.

Dallas police Chief David Kunkle said crowd estimates ranged from 150,000 to as high as a half-million.

Crowds of people formed outside Cathedral Guadalupe at the corner of Ross Avenue and North Pearl Street. From there, they marched through Ross Avenue, Akard Street, Commerce Street, South Ervay Street and then to Dallas City Hall.

"I've been here 40 years and I think it's time for us to come out of the shadows. We were afraid, but not anymore," demonstrator Guillermo Herrera said. "We are people who want to give our lives for this country."

“I’m trying to let people know that this is not just a Hispanic cause, that we are here together for the workers of this country. You people eat from the hands of our ancestors, you eat from the hands of our brothers. We have the right to be here. I am the first born generation of a Mexican mother who works," Michelle McKee said.

The march lasted 90 minutes, Kunkle said. The rally, which ended at about 3:45, featured several city and civil rights leaders.

Kunkle said the demonstration went "very well" and that the crowd “could not have behaved better."

One officer received minor injuries when she was hit in the face when a scuffle broke out between demonstrators and a small group of counter demonstrators, Kunkle said.

Kunkle said there were no reports of any serious injuries.

Police reported one public intoxication arrest.

He said 500 officers were working the rally along with sheriff's deputies.

Another rally took place in downtown Fort Worth where an estimated 8,000 people demonstrated without incident.

One demonstrator there said he was marching to bring attention to the immigrant work force in north Texas.

“We’re here in America. We’re Mexicans. We’re Hispanics. We’re out here to join one nation -- the USA,” Alfredo Contreras said. “We’re just here to work. I mean, down the street two blocks away from here, I was working on a building. All you saw was Hispanics working there … We just want a better life for all our people here.”