The Latest: Hundreds rally for immigrants in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – The Latest on rallies around the nation supporting immigrant rights. (all times local):

3 p.m.

Several hundred people have held a rally on behalf of immigrants in Los Angeles, one of many such rallies around the U.S.

The multi-ethnic crowd gathered Saturday at a downtown Mexican-American cultural centre and plaza. Some carried signs saying “Here to Stay” and chanted “Si se puede,” Spanish for “Yes, we can.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis told them there are 3.6 million immigrants in the county, including a million who may have entered the U.S. illegally. She said some families contain both kinds of people.

Critics have said increased deportations could split up families.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said the group is putting the Trump administration on notice “that we’re not going to sit idly by while he destroys our community.”

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1:55 p.m.

More than 1,000 people poured into a teachers’ union hall in Chicago to support immigrant rights and implore each other to fight for those rights against what they fear will be a hostile Trump administration.

The Saturday rally attracted leaders from various religious faiths, ethnic groups and human rights organizations. Many told the audience to fight deportations, a Muslim registry and other efforts they believe President-elect Donald Trump will lead.

People told of fearing deportation. Some expressed worries that the Trump administration will prevent relatives — some in some of the most dangerous corners of the world — from joining them in the United States.

Thirty-one-year-old Rehab Alkadi says she fears what might happen to her and her family members who fled war-torn Syria because Trump has “said a lot of bad things about Muslim people.”

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1 p.m.

A standing-room-only crowd has packed a historic African-American church in Washington for one of dozens of rallies around the nation supporting immigrant rights.

People attending Saturday included immigrants who lack legal permission to be in the country and their relatives and supporters. Also present were elected officials and representatives of labour and women’s groups. A line to enter Metropolitan AME Church stretched nearly a city block.

Speakers denounced President-elect Donald Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric and his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said the American people would not allow Trump “to bury the Statue of Liberty.”

Immigrant rights advocates are planning demonstrations across the country in what they’re calling a “first salvo” against Trump’s pledged hard line on immigration.