HOUSTON -- Thousands of Houston residents, including illegal immigrants, marched Monday in protest of a controversial immigration bill, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The "March of Dignity" began at 1 p.m. at Guadalupe Park on the city's largely Hispanic east side, on South Jensen Drive at Navigation Boulevard. From there, demonstrators walked several miles to Allen's Landing on Main Street at Commerce Street in downtown Houston, the spot where Houston's founding fathers first arrived. A rally followed with protesters holding signs that read, in English, "Fix immigration, don't eliminate it," and "Proud American -- I'm here to work."

Illegal immigrants wanted their voices heard.

"We want some papers and we're not criminals. We're workers. We came here to work to help us," an illegal immigrant identified only as Nestor said. "None of y'all want to do our work. We do the hard work and they don't pay us good. If go to our country, you're not going to do it."

"We're out here to support all human race. They're trying to criminalize all illegal immigrants and yet they forget that America is made up of all immigrants," another protester said.

Participants gathered early to organize their thoughts, chants and banners in anticipation of Houston's largest immigration rally yet.

"I'm expecting to see something pretty amazing. A few weeks ago when the students were organizing the marches, it was really incredible. This is a national day of action, so it's going to be very exciting here today," participant Annica Gorham told KPRC Local 2.

Many of the people involved in the march are the immigrant workers who are the subject of the debate. Some participants said their employers gave them the day off to join in the rally.

"Even some employers who have called us, like one construction company owned by a Latino businessman, gave the day off to 150 workers," Central Americans Resource Center member Maria Jimenez said.

Organizers have discouraged students from participating in the protests. However, some students said their parents gave them permission to attend.

Marches, rallies and protests were held across Texas on Monday calling for Congress to legalize an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

Rallies also take place in El Paso, Austin and elsewhere in Texas, including an estimated 2,000 protesters at a morning rally in Tyler.

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On The Net: National Day Of Action For Immigrant Justice

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Dallas March Draws More Than 350,000 People

In Dallas, where a march on Sunday drew between 350,000 and 500,000 people, activists were urging immigrants to showcase their spending power by not buying anything during an economic boycott.

Considered the largest of many marches around the nation on Sunday, the crowd waved American flags as it snaked through downtown. Marchers shouted "Si Se Puede!", Spanish for "Yes, we can!", as they made their way to Dallas City Hall, where Hispanic leaders urged them to vote and press lawmakers to pass laws to help undocumented immigrants.

"This is a force, an energy here," said Amir Krummell, a U.S. citizen born in Panama. "There has to be a deal ... there has to be a happy medium."

They carried signs that read "Justice and Dignity for all U.S. immigrants," "Help us Re-unite Families" and "The Undocumented are not tax exempt."

The Sunday rallies also drew counter-demonstrators, and more were expected Monday. Police in Dallas said there was no violence.

Marchers included families pushing strollers with their children and ice cream vendors who placed American flags on their carts. Labor groups, some employers and religious organizations also supported the rally.

Some protesters wore shirts that said "No HR 4437," referring to the House bill passed in December that would build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border, criminalize helping undocumented immigrants and make it a felony, rather than a civil infraction, to be in the country illegally.

Opponents of the House legislation included business owner Michael Longcrier, who carried a sign that read "We work because of hard working immigrants."

An overhaul of immigration law is stalled in Congress. But activists say the Senate's decision last week not to push a bill that would have given many illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship offers them a chance to regroup.

The protests have been supported by popular Spanish-language disc jockeys, who quickly merged their local events into national plans after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in dozens of cities last month, culminating March 25 with a 500,000-strong rally in Los Angeles.