Lansing — Mayor Virg Bernero proclaimed March 31 Cesar Chavez Day as more than 150 people attended a rally Friday at the Capitol.

Some people carried posters denouncing a new federal immigration bill while others held Mexican flags or signs supporting Chavez.

Friday would have marked Chavez's 79th birthday, about 13 years after his death in 1993.

The Michigan Peace Team and the Capitol Area Cultura Commission turned the Mexican-American labor activist's birthday into a protest against recent immigration legislation.

In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, which would make it a felony to be an immigrant without documentation and make employees verify their workers' immigration status. It was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee for review.

The bill's intended to toughen up security at the Mexican border to prevent future outbreaks of terrorism, said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who co-sponsored it.

"We don't want anymore 9/11s," Burton said Saturday.

Rosa Morales, a journalism instructor and director of the Hispanics in Journalism Program, attended the rally with a camera, as an observer.

"I wanted to see and hear for myself what was going to happen," Morales said.

She worries the new legislation will cause some people to judge those who have darker skin and assume they are all illegal aliens.

"It puts a very serious burden on people who are brown," Morales said.

This is not the only bill that could affect immigration.

Several others dealing with immigration have been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

At the Lansing rally, people argued that the bill could turn activists and helpers into criminals with felony records.

"It would make it a crime to give a cup of soup to someone without legal documentation," said Pastor Fred Thelen, a speaker at the rally.

Thelen is a pastor at the Cristo Rey Church in Lansing, which hosts a predominately Chicano and Latino congregation.

The bill also militarizes the Mexican and U.S. border by adding more fences to it, he said.

One of the goals of the rally was to spark activism, mirroring the peaceful protesting of Chavez, said Jamie Ortega, coordinator for the Capitol Area Cultura Commission.

"If they think stuff is wrong, like this bill they're trying to pass, they can do something about it," Ortega said.

The rally reminded the younger generations about the work of the deceased labor rights reformer, she said.

Chavez left school after the eighth grade to work in the fields as a migrant worker.

He eventually started the National Farm Workers Organization and fought for higher wages for workers, especially grape pickers.