May Day

The day of protest - called the Great American Boycott of 2006 by organizers - included rallies in Center City (Philadelphia), where police said about 7,000 people gathered at 6th and Market Streets, as well as in Camden and Kennett Square.

About 200 protesters marched across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge from a Camden event and met a contingent of about 800 departing a Latino immigrant forum in Philadelphia to march to the afternoon event a block from Independence Hall.

In southern Florida, thousands of protesters gathered in a vacant lot in Homestead, a community with a large Mexican population 35 miles south of Miami, a Homestead police spokesman said. They are expected to head to other rallies in Miami, including one at the Orange Bowl.

12:50 p.m. Latest crowd estimate from Chicago police: 300,000.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of Mexicans marched through the capital and boycotted U.S. stores on Monday to support illegal immigrants demonstrating for more rights in the United States.

Thousands of people clad in white shirts marched from northwest Denver to the state Capitol this morning as part of a national day of action to draw attention to immigration rights.

The group, estimated by Denver Police to be as high as 75,000 people, walked for more than 30 minutes from Viking Park at 29th Street and Federal Boulevard to the Capitol.

The white that many marchers wore was intended to symbolize their peaceful march. Some pushed strollers and others carried backpacks and coolers filled with food and water as they headed for a noontime rally downtown.

Tens of thousands of undocumented workers and their supporters demonstrated today across the Los Angeles area as they flexed their political and economic muscles in support of an overhaul of national immigration policy.

More than 100,000 people marched through downtown Los Angeles to congregate around City Hall, the third major demonstration to rock the city in less than two months. Festive, even jubilant, demonstrators paraded to the Latin rhythms. At Spring and 1st streets they heard the blaring of Neil Diamond's "We're Coming to America."

The crowd overflowed City Hall Plaza and filled the green areas that serve as a buffer for the official buildings. Dressed in white for peace, people waved American flags as they roared what they hope would be a demand heard across the nation in Washington.

The city (of Seattle) is expecting 15,000 people to participate in the march, which begins at Judkins Park at 20 Place South and South Lane around 4:30. Marchers will travel to the downtown Federal Building on Second Avenue, where they will hold a rally.

Republican National Committeeman Randy Pullen, a key supporter of an Arizona law passed in 2004 to limit public services for illegal immigrants, believed the demonstrations would backfire.

"I think it galvanizes average Americans into believing that there's a real problem that needs to be solved," he said. "The other thing that I think is important to note is these demonstrators here today do not speak for law-abiding Latino American citizens."

Roberto Aguilar, an Atlanta construction worker originally from Mexico City, says he was fired after he marched at a demonstration last month. The 25-year-old, though, felt it was important to return Monday.

"If we don't come out, they're going to paint us as criminals," Aguilar said. "We've only come here to earn money with the sweat of our brow."

As you can see Roberto, the GOP is going to paint you as criminals no matter what you do. So you might as well protest and make life a little less comfortable for them.

Meanwhile, in Iran, evidence that we're not really all that different.