Immigrants say No Gracias to Arizona.

The weekend's heat didn’t keep protesters in The New York Coalition from showing their support at the annual May Day Rally for Immigrants' and Workers' Rights in Union Square. Thousands of immigrant workers hit the streets of over 70 cities this Saturday. Law officials estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 of the Latin American, Asian, and Muslim immigrants were in attendance at the New York event, to a blogger for The Berman Post.

Activists demanded a governmental respect for the immigrant work force, rights to citizenship, and curiously, a boycott of the entire state of Arizona. Arizona Senate Bill 1070, passed April 23, will give law officials the power to investigate a person's immigration status with "reasonable suspicion". Should officers in Arizona find suspects without documentation, they will have the authority to charge them with criminal misdemeanor and arrest. Protesters’ signs and speeches denounced Arizona’s legislature for being unconstitutional and a harsh method of racial profiling. They also called into question Obama's lack of action with immigration reform. The president vowed to handle the issue in his "first 100 days".

"We may not run America, but America could not run without us!" chanted the packs of immigrant workers. The crowd was largely Latino; the majority of speeches, chants, and hip-hop acts were in Spanish. According to The New York Coalition's website, 40 New York based workers' unions were in attendance.

While opposition to AZSB1070 was passionate, protesters were peaceful in New York and nationwide. There were only two reported arrests at the Los Angeles rally, coming in at the largest with 50,000 attendants, reported the Washington Post.