"¡Si, Se Puede!" Say Immigrants

Rallies In Dozens Of Cities Compared By Some To Civil Rights Campaigns

(CBS/AP)  Pitts reports it is cheap labor with a hidden price tag. Undocumented workers pay $10 billion in federal taxes, but another $15 billion goes unpaid. And, illegal immigrants cost the American taxpayer $2.2 billion in health care costs, Pitt reports.

Cruz Luna, his wife and their four children all wore T-shirts reading "God Bless America" at a demonstration in Pensacola, Fla. The two oldest children — ages 8 and 9 — were born in Mexico and are in the U.S. illegally; their younger siblings, ages 4 and 8 months are U.S. citizens.

"We want to send a strong message today, a message that we want the laws to be fair," Luna said.

In Arizona, police estimated that at least 25,000 demonstrators turned out in Phoenix while several thousand others demonstrated in Tucson. Miguel Penate, a fast-food restaurant manager who moved from El Salvador six years ago, said being in the country illegally was his only option.

"There's no way to come legally over here," said Penate, 25. "If there was, do you think people would like to be in the desert risking their lives?"

Yinka Aganga Williams, who moved to the U.S. from Nigeria six years ago, joined a small group of demonstrators who marched to Specter's Pittsburgh office.

"This country was built by immigrants, Pittsburgh in particular," said Williams, 54. "This is supposed to be a land of freedom, that's why they came."

In the Midwest, an estimated 3,000 people demonstrated in Garden City, Kan., a farming community that counts fewer than 30,000 residents. In Champaign, Ill., hundreds of demonstrators marched along a busy street to the University of Illinois campus, carrying signs with slogans such as: "The pilgrims had no green cards."

The demonstrations were mostly peaceful, though in Portland, Maine, one demonstrator clashed with a small group of counter-demonstrators. One of three people carrying signs saying illegal immigrants have no rights was hit in the head.

An event in Harrisburg, Pa., drew a handful of hecklers.

"Go to jail!" shouted William Hazzard, 58, a retired school custodian from Harrisburg. "I'm from Germany and I had to give up my rights as a German citizen. I had to speak English."

Raymond Marks, 47, an apartment complex service manager, held an upside-down American flag as a sign of distress.

"These people are expecting me to give them rights they don't deserve," he said.

Monday's demonstrations followed a weekend of rallies in 10 states that drew up to 500,000 people in Dallas, 50,000 in San Diego, and 20,000 in Salt Lake City. Dozens of rallies and student walkouts, many organized by Spanish-language radio DJ's, have been held in cities from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York over the past two weeks.

Protesters have been urging Congress, whose immigration reform efforts stalled last week, to help the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants settle here legally.

Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas told CBS News that Monday's demonstrations will be followed by another type of protest.

"There is also a day of boycott, economic boycott, planned for May 1 in which organizers say that they want to show Americans that a day without an immigrant can be a day when the U.S. economy will be suffering," Salinas said.

Xavier Suarez, 46, an Ecuadorian immigrant with U.S. citizenship, said others deserve the same right to live and work in America, pay taxes and contribute to society,

"America is a country of dreams. These people have dreams," said Suarez, who demonstrated in Lake Worth, Fla. "They have family back home in their countries and they've been separated for many years. It's only fair that they are allowed to be together again here, and to help keep this country growing."