[JURIST] Large numbers of immigrants and supporters assembled in cities across the United States Monday for a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice [advocacy website], urging lawmakers to make it easier for the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants to live in the country legally. The demonstrations come in response to the ongoing debate in Congress on immigration reform [JURIST archive], which has prompted heavy criticism from the US immigrant population. The US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] a border security bill [HR 4437 summary] last year, but the Senate version of the legislation, S 2454 [summary] stalled [JURIST report] last week after a compromise agreement [PDF summary] fell through.

It's estimated that as many as 50,000 immigration supporters rallied in Atlanta while several thousand protested in Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego and Salt Lake City. Local events [event listings] were scheduled to take place in every state, and as many as 2 million are expected to attend 136 rallies across the country. A similar protest in Dallas [AP report] on Sunday included as many 500,000 people and organizers hope to get as many as 180,000 protesters at an afternoon rally in Washington, DC [Washington Post report]. AP has more. Bloomberg has additional coverage.