By Luis Uribe

LOS ANGELES – Several May Day marches were staged in different parts of Los Angeles County to demand the legalization of the status of millions of undocumented immigrants.

Most of Friday’s demonstrations were held in downtown Los Angeles, while one – made up mainly of high-school students – was staged in the southeastern part of the county.

The first march, organized by the group Derechos Plenos de los Inmigrantes (Full Rights for Immigrants), began at midday at the intersection of Olympic and Broadway avenues and concluded at Broadway and Temple St.

At close to 2 p.m., demonstrators assembled by the Multi Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network, or MIWON, gathered at Echo Park Lake and marched west along Sunset Boulevard to La Placita Church, where they unveiled a giant card with a message for President Barack Obama.

“We hope the community gets involved in any activity that’s held to commemorate workers’ contributions to the United States and also to call on our president to take steps toward immigration reform sooner rather than later,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which includes MIWON.

“We think this is a very special march also due to what’s happening in the world,” Cabrera said in reference to the AH1N1 flu virus, which he said not only has caused concern among immigrant communities because of the risk of infection but because anti-immigrant groups have blamed undocumented foreigners for spreading the illness, which first emerged in Mexico.

At the end of the march organized by MIWON, close to 2,000 workers – each carrying part of the card – spelled out the phrase “Workers First” with their bodies, a message visible from the air.

High-school students also participated in the May Day demonstrations for immigration reform.

“The students who marched today are asking that they stop the deportations that are separating our families,” said 16-year-old Liency Gonzalez, who organized a group of close to 100 students at Alhambra High School.

The students, after attending regularly scheduled classes, joined the march coordinated by the March 25th Coalition at around 4 p.m.

Coinciding with that demonstration, more than 3,000 workers with the American Apparel company began a march along 7th Street, joining the March 25th Coalition’s protest at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Street.

Likewise, a march organized by the “Group of Cities of Southeastern Los Angeles” County, which drew a large number of high school students, began at 4:15 p.m. at the Santa Rosa de Lima Catholic Church in Maywood and ended at Huntington Park.

During the march along a route covering just over two miles, the students pressed their demand that Congress pass the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow certain immigrant students who arrived in the United States as children – and graduated from a U.S. high school – an opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.

These students must have a clean record and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment. They also must either attend college and earn a two year degree or serve in the military for two years to obtain citizenship after a six-year period.

The last march of the day began at around 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Spring and 1st and ended at MacArthur Park.

Rosalia Mendez, a Salvadoran who walked with her two children, aged eight and 12, said she was not afraid to demonstrate despite the threat of the AH1N1 virus.

“No one was going to make me stay home. We need for immigrants to be recognized for our work and for us to be offered a fair (path to) legalization,” Mendez said.

In 2007, then-President George W. Bush and Democratic lawmakers backed an immigration reform bill that would have allowed a path to citizenship for many undocumented foreigners while also tightening border security.

But the proposal was defeated by Republican legislators, who said it amounted to amnesty for those who had illegally entered the country.

Obama said during his campaign that one of the main goals of his first year in office would be comprehensive legislation that allows at least some of the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to acquire legal status.