The Rev. James Orange from the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda compared the march to civil rights demonstrations led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and farm-labor organizer Cesar Chavez.

"People of the world, we have come to say this is our moment," Orange said.

In New Jersey — with the Statute of Liberty in the background — several hundred people listened to speeches in Spanish and waved U.S., Colombian and Mexican flags.

Thick crowds gathered in New York's Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall. Many waved flags, both American and of countries of their origin. Korean-Americans beat drums nearby. Another group marched from Chinatown, and a third demonstration took place in Brooklyn.

Police declined to estimate the size of the crowds, but organizers said 125,000 people were present at City Hall.

One of the Korean drummers, Grace Nam, 35, who is an American citizen, said: "We just need to make our voices heard. You want to live in a place where people are treated with dignity."

Peter Lanteri, director of New York's chapter of the Minutemen, a volunteer border watch group, said he thought it was "ridiculous" that illegal immigrants were protesting for their rights.

"Illegal is illegal, and they break our laws to come here," Lanteri said by telephone. "We want the illegal immigration stopped, and the borders secured."

Supporters in San Diego planned to hold a ceremony to honor immigrants who died while illegally crossing the border.

In Phoenix, police estimated that at least 50,000 people marched from the state fairgrounds to the Capitol for a rally. Exit ramps were closed, and traffic on freeways through downtown was backed up for miles. At one point, the crowd stretched more than two miles.

In Houston, event organizers estimated that 50,000 people gathered at a park in a largely Hispanic area of town as they rallied to march toward the spot where Houston's founding fathers first arrived.

Maria Santiago, 53, an outreach coordinator for a nonprofit health clinic in Harrisburg, Pa., said she sees many illegal immigrants seeking access to health care.

"These are people that are willing to take any job, clean bathrooms, scrub floors for a measly penny so that they have an opportunity to live in this country ... and yet we want to send them back because they want a better life?" Santiago said.

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Contributing: Associated Press writers Matthew Verrinder in Jersey City, N.J.; Juan A. Lozano and Alicia A. Caldwell in Houston; Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta; Martha Raffaele in Harrisburg, Pa.; Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan.; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; and Anabelle Garay in Dallas.