It was billed as a silent march, but at least an hour before the start of the demonstration for immigrant rights, thousands upon thousands of people gathered at Judkins Park made their presence known, visually and vocally.

They came from all directions, dressed in black, some pushing baby strollers, some carrying American flags, and others carrying signs saying "Immigration Reform Now" and "No human being is illegal."

By 5:15 p.m. the largely silent crowd reached the Chinatown International District where some onlookers and supporters stood outside to watch. As the crowd got closer to downtown, they started to cheer.

Evangeline Lopez, 20, a home maker from Federal Way, said as she marched that she hopes the efforts today will stop people regarding Hispanics as criminals.

"If you look at it, it was Hispanics who were here before the Europeans," she said. She agrees with today's march, "without the Hispanic community, there is no economy for the U.S."

About 5:30 p.m. at Columbia Street and Fourth Avenue, a man in a white car was making obscene gestures to people in the crowd. According to witnesses, police were trying to get the man out of the car when it ran into the car in front of him. The man was taken into custody by police.

Before the march began, speakers on a sound stage exhorted the crowd to remember those who had fought for civil rights: Chief Seattle, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The crowd cheered in response.

Demonstrators are demanding changes in immigration laws that would create a clear path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living here, speeding up the process by which immigrant families can join their relatives here and establish work place protections for all immigrants –– regardless of their status.

An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 undocumented immigrants in this country live in Washington state - many of them in Eastern Washington. The state is home to about 500,000 Latinos.

Maria Martinez, 40, a homemaker from Sultan, came with her husband and two young children to the march. She came because, "I know a lot of decent people who don't have papers. They just break the law to come here, but only because they have no jobs back in their country. But they are not bad people. They're decent. They work hard."

Chuck Gotcher, 44, of Rainier, Thurston County, came with other members of Carpenters Local 116. The union, which represents residential carpenters in Western Washington, has a lot of Latino members. The chapter voted last month to come to the rally.

Gotcher doesn't buy the argument that illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans.

"I don't think we have enough people to fill jobs," he said.

He said the commercial and real estate market is so hot now that, "we're trying to figure out how to man all the work this season."

The work stoppage, march and rally in Seattle was repeated in about 70 other cities nationwide.

Here in Washington state, its impact is expected to be felt throughout the restaurant industry, at hotels, construction and landscaping sites, in nursing homes and hospitals and in the farm fields of Eastern Washington. The march and rally through downtown was expected at draw least 10,000 demonstrators and possibly as many as 25,000.

Although some organizations participating in the rallies had hoped to shut down the economy for a day, the broader purpose was to make a statement about the value of immigrant workers in the U.S. economy and "to hold political leaders accountable for people who are here and contributing to our economy and our society," said David Rolf, president of SEIU Local 775, which represents about 30,000 workers in the long-term health care industry in Washington, including about 6,000 in King County.

"We can't lose our focus on what's happening in Congress, and the way politicians are acting around this issue," he said. "There needs to be a path toward earned legalization and eventual citizenship for the 10 to 20 million people who are here without documents, most of whom work, earn wages, support families here and abroad, pay some form of taxes and create an incredible level of net value in our economy.

Adele Calabrese, office manager, for the Seattle and Woodinville arm of Maid Brigade Northwest, said 40 of its 60 employees were to join the protest today, with the permission of the owner. The office called clients to moved services to another day. "Clients were very understanding," she said.

Mateo Ramos, area director for Azteca Mexican Restaurants, said today's rally was more organized than the prior one in April, which gave them more time to adjust to absent employees.

The Seattle-based restaurant chain closed three of its 33 locations — at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Bremerton and downtown Spokane — to accommodate requests for time-off.

Ramos said 15 to 20 percent of its 1,300 employees expressed a desire to participate in the rally. While others workers supported the cause, they couldn't afford to take two days off in two weeks. (The first rally was in mid-April.)

Grand Central Bakery in Seattle did not bake its artisan breads today because at least 20 of its 80 employees planned to participate in demonstrations.

That means about $10,000 in lost revenue, said Gillian Allen-White, the company's general manager. She said she knows how much it will cost because a year ago the bakery lost power for a day.

The bakery will still deliver bread that was baked on Sunday because it needs only about six drivers for that.

Allen-White is sympathetic to the immigrants' cause.

"We've all been immigrants at some point," she said. "So much of this keeps getting wrapped up with classism and the perception that these folks are not contributing as much as some other employees. It's just patently untrue."

Alfonso Gonzalez, co-owner of Sofrito Rico, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Ballard, is one of only five people keeping the restaurant open today, while seven others take the day off to show solidarity for immigrants' rights. The workers who took the day off are not being paid for the day.

"I got a lot of requests to close on Monday from people in the community who are involved," Gonzalez said. "This is an important issue, and we'd like to do more, but we just informed our own employees and let them know where the rallies were going to be."

In Maltby, the owners of Flower World said they support their agricultural workers who walked off the job today. They employ about 80 such workers in the off season and about 140 in the summer, said Marijke Postema, who owns the company with her husband, John.

Although they weren't paid if they took off for the April rally, the company might pay workers who are participating in the today's walkout.

"They are darn good workers," Postema said. "They work very hard. A lot of Caucasians do not want to do the work of physically planting and potting."

About 20 percent of the roughly 700 workers that Chris Clark has on his construction sites did not show up for work today, said the Chairman and CEO of W.G. Clark Construction in Seattle. That figure includes the companies he sub-contracts with, he added.

While the walkout and march today is meant to show Americans what society would be like without immigrants, Clark said that employers already know the answer.

"It's just a reality in our industry. It'd be impossible to get work done if we didn't have these people in the workforce," Clark said.

The construction workers that didn't show up today are paid by the hour, so they had to give up their paychecks, he said.

"That means they care about the issue," Clark said.

At Providence Marianwood nursing home in Issaquah, at least 12 employees didn't show up for work out of the 40-member daytime staff, said the home's administrator Jerry Hoganson.

The employees all informed the staff ahead of time that they wouldn't be coming into work today, he added. Almost all took personal days, but in one case when one of them didn't have a personal day to take, a manager volunteered to donate 8 hours to that worker.

"We're a 24-7 business that can't close," Hoganson said. "They told us they would like to be gone today and we said we'll support you in that."

To make up for the shortage in labor everyone is pitching in, he added.

"Managers are doing jobs they normally wouldn't do like housekeeping, working in the laundry and in the kitchen," Hoganson said.

At Northwest Landscape Services in Woodinville, sales and marketing director Neil Corcoran said that at least 90 percent of the company's work staff is affected by the issue. They have more than 100 workers.

No work is taking place today, he said. Since they knew about the walkout in advance, they prepared this week for four 10-hour work days instead of the usual five days.

"They can still take off and will still make money," he said.

"The vast majority of our workers are Hispanic," Corcoran said. "We want to be supportive any way we can. It's in our best interest."

In the Mukilteo School District, about 60 percent of the Latino students at Mariner High school, 192, were absent today, said district spokesman Andy Muntz. Other Snohomish County school districts said there didn't seem to be more absences than usual.

"There doesn't appear to be a mass exodus," said Gay Campbell(ca), spokeswoman for the Everett School District.

In Yakima, a line of cars miles long headed into the city from the Lower Yakima Valley. With their emergency lights flashing, many of the cars were festooned with Mexican and American flags and painted with such messages as "We are not criminals."

Organizers anticipated at least 3,000 people participated.

The Yakima Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said most of the Hispanic-owned and operated businesses across the Valley closed today.

Ernesto Gonzalez, owner of Gonzalez Construction and chamber president, said he expects the closures to cause $500,000 to $1 million in lost sales.

"I hope this sends a message about the economic help the immigrant people put in this county," Gonzalez said.

Elsewhere there were mixed reports on support for a business boycott.

Employees at Yakima's Wal-Mart and Union Gap's Costco said they had not noticed a drop-off in the number of customers at their stores by noon today.

"This is actually a very busy Monday," said Costco manager Mike O'Hara.

Workers at some stores said the beginning of the month is usually busy because many customers get their paychecks at the end of the month and state assistance checks are also mailed.

Some businesses closed to allow workers to attend the rally. That was the case at a large Sunnyside supermarket, the Food Pavilion. A sister store in Yakima opened late because there were fewer than 20 employees to operate the 67,000-square-foot store.

At Tree Top, a Selah-based juice processor, employees interested in attending the rally were allowed to take the day off, said spokeswoman Laura Prisc.

Seattle Times staff reporters Melissa Allison, Lisa Chiu and Monica Soto Ouchi contributed to this report. Portions of this report were provided by the Yakima-Herald Republic.

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