MIAMI—More than 100 people attended a New Year’s Day press conference and send-off (above) here for four youth who are marching 1,500 miles to Washington, D.C., to demand rights for undocumented immigrants.

The youth, members of Students Working for Equal Rights, plan stops in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They are encouraging others to organize solidarity actions and join them in the nation’s capital May 1. Since 2006, May 1 has been a day of immigrant rights rallies across the United States.

Juan Rodriguez, 20, one of the marchers, is originally from Colombia and is now president of the student government at Miami-Dade College’s InterAmerican Campus. He and the others say they were inspired by the migrant farm workers who walked the length of California in the 1970s and by the civil rights marches of the 1960s.

Also walking the entire distance are Felipe Matos, 23, born in Brazil; Gaby Pacheco, 24, from Ecuador; and Carlos Roa, 22, born in Venezuela. All came to the United States as young children.

“I’m going to walk because even though many promises were made by the Obama administration, nothing has changed,” Rodriguez said. “There are more raids, more deportations.”

—DEBORAH LIATOS