PHOENIX - It was more an atmosphere of fiesta rather than fear that rippled through a crowd of thousands who rallied Saturday on the steps of the Arizona legislature to denounce the newly acted "Papers, Please" law - SB1070.

 

The mood of those who marched five miles through 95 degree heat was, perhaps, summed up best by the slogan seen on numerous posters: "Undocumented Unafraid."

 

Organizers of the protest had predicted a crowd as large as 50,000 and while the rally might have fallen short of that mark, it was, without question, one of the largest protests since the controversial Arizona law was passed about a month ago. 

 

Saturday's march and rally marked the kick off of what some community organizers and activists are calling Arizona's Freedom Summer. Plans to stage more rallies and escalating acts of civil disobedience will be further elaborated over the remainder of the Memorial Day weekend as organizers from across the southwest and the country huddle here in Arizona.

 

"We are drawing the line quite literally in the sands of Arizona," said an organizer of  the million member Service Employees International Union. "This law cannot stand and America cannot stand it."

 

The "Papers, Please" law broadly empowers local Arizona police to enforce federal immigration law and to make stops and ask for identification and proof of legal residence on the basis of "reasonable suspicion." Critics of the law say it flings the door open to blatant racial profiling and is clearly unconstitutional.

 

Saturday's rally and march come one day after Obama Administration Department of Justice officials were in Phoenix meeting with the state attorney general and with representatives of Republican Gov. Jan Brewer who signed SB1070 into law. The DOJ warned Arizona that it might have to intervene to question the constitutionality of the measure .