The action was one of a series of vigils at INS centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, and Washington on the same day.

The protesters demanded that the government expand the special immigration status of Cubans and Nicaraguans to include immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti; a reversal of the rule requiring applicants for residency to return to their country of origin while awaiting a response from the INS; and an extension of amnesty for undocumented immigrants past the current cutoff date of having residency since 1986.

The protesters included a contingent of garment workers brought by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, many of them young Mexican workers. Many of the protesters were from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador.

Among the speakers at the protest were Jacob Perasso, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in New York. Perasso linked the recent racist attacks against immigrant workers in Farmingville, New York, with the bipartisan scapegoating of immigrant workers and the increased deportations and stepped-up presence of the INS on the Mexican border.

"Workers from Mexico and other countries bring fighting experiences to the working class in the United States and help us win," stated Perasso. "In many union-organizing drives immigrants are playing a leading role. The Socialist Workers campaign demands equal rights for all immigrants, amnesty for all, and an end to immigration restrictions."