immigration reform - It is being billed as the largest immigration protest since the mass demonstrations of 2006. In immigrant neighborhoods nationwide the expectation ahead of Sunday’s march in Washington, D.C., was palpable.

In New York, immigrants gathered days before the protest to paint signs with messages like “Obama, keep your promise.” Popular FM stations La Mega and Amor broadcast special PSAs encouraging people to join bus caravans to the nation’s capital.

Tens of thousands of immigrant activists and their allies from around the country--with an estimated 10,000 from the New York area alone--will converge this Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The goal is to put comprehensive immigration reform firmly back on the political agenda after a year in which immigrant communities have been bitterly disappointed by congressional and White House foot-dragging.

Organizers’ ultimate aim: immigration reform legislation before the November 2010 mid-term elections.

“The march is only one step in a much longer trajectory for us in getting this passed,” Gabe Gonzalez, lead organizer of Sunday’s protest, told New America Media in a phone interview.

On Thursday, Gonzalez sent supporters an urgent fund-raising e-mail to finance transport costs for last-minute marchers.

According to the e-mail, organizers wanted to “make sure that on Sunday afternoon, everyone sees just how powerful the immigration reform movement is and that lawmakers give us the respect we deserve. But that won't happen unless we bring a crowd so big, it exceeds expectations.“

Even without a last-minute bump, turnout goals already seem to have been met, if not surpassed, organizers said. There are more than 50,000 participants registered, and 819 buses traveling to the capital from 33 states. Abogados de Inmigracion