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Immigration rally turnout lower than '06 By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 17 minutes ago



CHICAGO - Magda Ortiz believes a recent raid in a largely Mexican neighborhood of Chicago made people too afraid to march in an immigration rights rally, which drew far fewer protesters than turned out last year.

Ortiz, a 27-year-old legal resident from Mexico and mother of two, pushed through crowds on the city's lakefront with a stroller bearing a sign that read: "Bush, think about the moms. Stop the raids."

But if the raids kept some people away, organizers said, they drew out others who were determined to show they wouldn't be intimidated.

I want to send them back," he said. "I've been in the city for 40 years. They've completely destroyed our city."

In Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets last year, police put initial estimates at 150,000, by far the country's largest turnout. In Los Angeles, where several hundred thousand turned out a year earlier, about 25,000 attended a downtown rally, said police Capt. Andrew Smith.

In fiscal year 2006, federal immigration officials deported 195,024 people, compared with 173,363 the previous year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. Six months into the current fiscal year, 125,405 have been deported.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean told immigrant supporters in Miami that a reform bill currently before Congress was "insane" because it would require many illegal immigrants to return home before applying for citizenship.

"This is a government that can't find a 6-foot-4 terrorist. How is it going to find 12 million people?" he told a group of more than 100 party supporters at Parrot Jungle Island.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_re_us/immigration_protests