After waiting for hours in front of a nearly empty city hall in Los Angeles, the crowds arrived en masse shortly after 11 a.m. local time.
While there's no official crowd estimate, the line for the porta potties is beyond long, so we obviously have a big protest on our hands.
Before it got crowded here, I got to talk to Cecilia Mendez, a grandmother originally from Mexico. She came to this Los Angeles rally before it got moving, because her husband has a foot injury and can't walk the protest route.
We chatted together on the steps of city hall as we waited for the crowds. She's been a legal resident since 1985 and gave birth to two daughters in the United States.
Cecilia joined the rally because she wants people to come out of hiding. She thinks illegal immigrants who have been here working and contributing to society deserve a chance to live with the same rights as everyone else.
Cecilia came wearing white and waving an American flag. She said she hadn't protested since the days of Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American labor activist and former leader of the United Farm Workers.
Just like any grandmother might, she shook her head at some of the younger protesters. In particular, she couldn't understand why someone would bring a Mexican flag to a rally in the United States.
As she put it: "I love this country. THIS is where we want to live ... to work."
