New York, NY —

A push to reform the nation’s immigration laws has rapidly created a mass mobilization of immigrants and their supporters. In the past month, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to demand legalization and denounce a bill that would make felons out of those in the country illegally. For a population that often tries to fly under the radar, it was the first time protesting in this country. Many felt invigorated by the experience and plan to continue to speak out. Immigrant organizers want to build on that momentum but they also want the black community to join in what they see as an extension of the civil rights movement.

REPORTER: Restaurant workers at a popular lower Manhattan restaurant recently took a quick break after the lunch hour rush to discuss last week’s immigration rally that took place in the neighborhood where they work. As they schlepped burgers and salads up to government employees who work in the area, they witnessed the tens of thousands of people in the streets. Once their shifts ended they were eager to go out and be a part of it. For them it was an emotional event:

TITO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I felt so happy and satisfied to see so many Hispanics and not just them but people from all over the world all together.

REPORTER: Tito is from Mexico and has been living in the U.S. for 10 years. His co-worker Hector is from Colombia:

HECTOR (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): An American newspaper said the sleeping giant had awoken…I think it’s the truth…there were 300-thousand people at that rally.

REPORTER: Both men are here illegally and Hector says typically he doesn’t feel like he has much of a say in this country:

HECTOR (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): During the protest, yes but outside of the protest no our words are worth nothing.

REPORTER: This sentiment of feeling disenfranchised is what Union organizers are trying to use to make the immigration movement much broader. Hector Figueroa is Secretary Treasurer of local 32bj. Across the country the service employees union has played a major role in demonstrations. Figeuroa says immigration reform has to do with a much bigger agenda:

FIGUEROA: ...which is about workers who have been neglected in this country whether because they lack documents or because they have been living in the margins of our society due to intense poverty and lack of opportunities because of who they are.

REPORTER: With an unemployment rate which by some estimates reaches above 50 percent among black males, the African American community is seen as a natural fit to help grow the movement. Outspoken black activist and city councilman Charles Barron agrees but says a lot of education will have to happen first. He says he is doing just that with his constituents who live in poor neighborhoods like East New York, Brownsville and Canarsie:

BARRON: When they walk through the community and see Mexicans and other so called foreigners on jobs that they feel they should have they resent it and I have to take time out to explain to them that the person who should get the felony is the corporation that hires Mexicans and doesn’t pay them a living wage or give them health benefits or a pension, that’s the crime not the Mexicans. It’s not like if they didn’t hire them they were going to hire you.

REPORTER: According to the former black panther, unemployment was high in the black community prior to any immigration surge. Barron warns of minorities being “divided and conquered” and says the two communities should hold town hall meetings together to better understand one another. Other high profile black activists like Al Sharpton and Reverend Calvin Butts who are pros at organizing blacks have also thrown their support behind the immigrant movement.

REPORTER: On the Streets of Harlem, there is sympathy for immigrants. Figueroa and other activists have consciously been trying to make a connection between immigrant rights and the civil rights movement. For James Boyd, a 65 year old music and video vendor who believes everyone except native Americans are immigrants, the link is clear:

BOYD: Definitely same thing, it is no different. It is discrimination.

REPORTER: A customer flipping through Boyd’s videos who would only identify himself as Lloyd, an actor from New Jersey, also expressed sympathy but both men were ambivalent at best about actually joining protests:

LLOYD: I support them standing up for what they believe in. They’ve been here and they’re law abiding citizens just like everybody else. There are people who do wrong everyday that need to go there are American citizens who need to go.

REPORTER: A few blocks away on 125th Street, Gerald Thymes, sitting on a bus stop bench said he would like to see more Haitians and West Africans taking a stronger roll in the immigration movement. And as far as linking the struggle of immigrants to the struggle of blacks in the 60’s – he says the comparison can only go so far:

THYMES: Only in terms of liberties, in terms of African American had to be able to own property, they had to be able to go to schools. But the hell that African Americans had to go through in this country was extraordinary so I don’t know or I don’t think that they are facing that particular kind of hell but on a basic level of civil liberties obviously there is a parallel.

REPORTER: Figueroa and other community groups are hopeful that this parallel will resonate with blacks across the city .

FIGUEROA: In order for us to succeed we have to really build from where the civil rights movement left and recognize the demand of equal opportunity and equal economic justice has not been realized for millions of African Americans for millions of minorities, for the working poor and that we as an immigrant movement need to draw a connection with those other sectors in order for us to sustain a long term agenda.

REPORTER: Unions and community groups have been reaching out to different black leaders and groups to try to make their case. Figueroa is hopeful an alliance will be forged soon and once it is, he says “build levies not walls” will be the perfect slogan .

For WNYC, I’m Cindy Rodriguez