The Mall in Washington, D.C., has been site of many memorable, massive protests, with demonstrators making their points heard in view of Capitol Hill.

Just not today.

By the middle of the day, a few dozen pro-immigrant AFL-CIO-affiliated protesters from Wayne County, North Carolina, and a handful of others reading from the Bible were on the Capitol lawn.

Local labor and other civic leaders made a conscious decision not to act -- for now, at least -- even as elsewhere crowds marked "A Day Without Immigrants." As with much in Washington, politics played a prominent role.

"The ball is now in the Senate's court -- they deserve time to address the issue," said Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, which organized an earlier protest. "We're trying to hold back. There are other things we can do."

While speaking 142 languages, Washington's immigrant population isn't as established as those in cities like Los Angeles and New York. But it's growing rapidly in size (from 400,000 in 1990 to over 1 million) and stature, according to Gustavo Torres, head of CASA de Maryland, a non-profit group that offers services to area day laborers.

Protests by immigrants may yet return to the streets of the nation's capital at some future time. But for today, apart from smaller gatherings around the region, such as at Washington, D.C.'s Malcolm X Park, big protests are the province of other cities.