Immigration reform, civil rights movement history connected

NEW YORK (AP):When 250,000 marchers converged on Washington in August 1963, the issues were jobs and freedom.

Now, as the crowds come together to mark the 50th anniversary of that seminal event in the civil rights movement, those issues have been joined by others, including one, immigration reform, that wasn't nearly on the political radar then like it is today.

"They were fighting for equality, and that's exactly what we're fighting for," said Mikhel Crichlow, 28, a native of Trinidad and Tobago now living in Brooklyn. Crichlow said he was going to Washington for the commemoration.

The push for comprehensive immigration reform was heard from the speakers' podium on the weekend, when tens of thousands marched to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial and down the National Mall.

"It doesn't make sense that millions of our people are living in the shadows," said Rep John Lewis, D-Ga., who was a speaker at the 1963 event. "Bring them out into the light and set them on the path to citizenship."

advocates

Immigrant advocates came from near and far to be part of the commemoration. They included Casa de Maryland, founded by Central American immigrants in the DC area in 1985. The organisation connected Rev Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have A Dream" speech to the dreams of immigrants in the United States illegally who are looking for legal status.