A Thursday teach-in at the University of Arizona, organized by the Mexican American Studies and Research Center, focused on immigration reform and the proposed legislation.

Lindsay a. miller / Arizona Daily star

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As U.S. senators scrambled to reach an accord this week on how best to handle illegal immigration, the call for action boomed over the radio airwaves day and night, stirring Spanish-speakers to further the cause of immigrants.

While the volatile debate continues at the nation's Capitol, hundreds of thousands of people living in the country illegally, and their supporters, plan to march and hold rallies Monday across the nation calling for changes in immigration laws.

Buoyed by radio, which has proved pivotal in mobilizing immigrants coast-to-coast, as many as 10,000 people are expected to gather on the South Side and march to Downtown.

"We have to show that we are part of this country," DJ Luis Córdova of KEVT, La Raza 1030-AM, said Thursday as he exhorted morning listeners to hoist the U.S. flag in next week's march. Throngs of immigrants have waved the Mexican flag in recent demonstrations, prompting criticism and questions of loyalty.

In Tucson, organizers said radio has injected fresh urgency into a growing immigrant movement.

"Radio is incredibly effective in the Spanish-speaking community," said Jennifer Allen, director of Border Action Network, an immigrant-advocacy group. "It's definitely been an impetus."

Critics downplayed the significance of the massive marches. Ira Mehlman, a national spokesman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the protests have served only to infuriate Americans who favor reduced levels of immigration. Such people, he predicted, will express their views at the polls.

Rosa Fuentes, who crossed the border illegally two decades ago, is ineligible to vote. But Fuentes said she was moved to act after hearing on the radio that some politicians want to crack down on people like her. She plans to be at the next march, she said, because DJs' calls for a strong show to help keep immigrant families together have hit close to home.

Fuentes, 31, said she was just 10 when her mother and five siblings crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in a freight train and settled in Tucson. Now the mother of two Tucson-born children, Fuentes said she wants to legalize her status and secure her family's future here.

"We will stay active until we can achieve something," the homemaker said, alluding to her family's involvement in demonstrations.

Her mother, Cristina Morales, also plans to attend the march. She obtained her legal residency seven years ago after marrying a U.S. citizen, she said, but her efforts to help legalize her sons and daughters have proved fruitless. "I will march for my children," said Morales, 56, who cleans houses for a living.

Whether or not radio influenced them, demonstrators say the threat to family and the overall negative tone of the immigration debate — particularly toward Mexicans — was key to spurring them into action.

Like Morales, many Tucson residents say their families are a mix of U.S. citizens, permanent residents and illegal border-crossers. Many U.S.-born students who walked out of schools last week said they wanted their voices heard on behalf of parents, grandparents, siblings and cousins who live here illegally.

"A lot of my family right now they're in the U.S., they're immigrants," said Jonathan Torres, 14. "They're just trying to have a better life."

Pueblo Jiménez, 52, is a legal U.S. resident who will take the day off from his carpentry job to walk in support of immigration reform that might reunite his family. Four of his seven children remain in Mexico, where they have waited 12 years for U.S. immigration authorities to grant them authorization to come here legally.

Selina Machado, 35, no longer lives here illegally. But the Mexican native said she will march Monday for her younger brother and all the other people who have been unable to secure legal status.

"Most immigrants come here to work, and to get a better education," said Machado, who also is taking the day off her job at a factory for a day. "We're not hurting anybody."

Maria Eugenia Carrasco, 45, said she will march for immigrant rights, carrying a placard with the American and the Mexican flags intertwined. "I'm a U.S. citizen, but that doesn't erase my Mexican roots," she said. "That is my identity."

But retiree Paul Volpe, 61, said displays of the Mexican flag and demands from marchers who are in the country illegally only breed resentment. "I think the silent majority is against illegals because their grandparents came legally," he said.