Hundreds Join Capitol Rally as Immigration Battle Continues

A diverse group of clergy rallied Monday outside the Capitol in solidarity with more than 1,000 immigration advocates.

WASHINGTON – As senators broke from the House's get-tough approach by refusing to make criminals of people who help illegal immigrants, a diverse group of clergy rallied Monday outside the Capitol in solidarity with more than 1,000 immigration advocates.

At least 200 faith leaders from around the country gathered for the interfaith prayer service on the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol and rally against current measures that criminalize clergy and social service providers who provide aid to undocumented immigrants. Dozens of clergy members wore handcuffs highlighting the criminalization of 50 million people and led a procession from the Capitol to the Dirksen Senate building in which the Senate hearing on comprehensive immigration reform was taking place. Advocates gathered wore t-shirts that read: "We Are America."

"This is not about legislation any more," said Jorge Medina, an immigrant from Honduras now living in Charlotte, N.C., according to the Associated Press. "This is about feelings now. We are Americans, too. We are not from Mars and we are not from the moon."

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Thousands of immigration advocates have marched across the nation in some of the largest demonstrations in recent years after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony, penalize those who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of those they help, and erect fences across a third of the U.S.-Mexican border.

More than 500,000 people rallied in Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon the House-passed measures. Similar but smaller protests were held in Dallas, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend. On Monday, thousands of demonstrators, many waving U.S. and Mexican flags, marched through Detroit. And hundreds of students walked out of high schools Monday in Dallas and Huntington Park, Calif.

As immigration rights activists rallied Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee adopted an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would protect church and charitable groups, as well as individuals, from criminal prosecution for providing food, shelter, medical care and counseling to undocumented immigrants.

"Charitable organizations, like individuals, should be able to provide humanitarian assistance to immigrants without fearing prosecution," Durbin said, according to AP.

The committee also approved more than doubling the current force of 11,300 Border Patrol agents in an effort to stem the tide of new undocumented workers arriving daily. It voted to add 2,000 agents next year and 2,400 more annually through 2011.