[media-credit name=’BEN CLASSON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]With thousands of immigrant workers and supporters flooding Capitol Square Tuesday afternoon, Madison joined dozens of major cities around the country in celebrating International Worker's Day.

The "Unión de Trabajadores Inmigrantes" rally, sponsored by the local immigrant workers union, specifically denounced the federal Real ID Act.

Under the act, by 2010, citizens would be required to show standardized driver's licenses to enter federal buildings and board federally regulated aircraft.

Tuesday's rally was also part of a national boycott against going to school or work and buying or selling goods.

"We're here celebrating immigrant labor with the international May 1, which is celebrated all over the world," UTI organizer Jennifer Wood-Taylor said. "Dane County recently passed a resolution to officially celebrate the day of workers."

Coming on the heels of three detentions in Dane County last week for illegal immigration by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Wood-Taylor said the rally was significant in its timing.

"This is to show people that we will not let their scare tactics get to us," Wood-Taylor said.

The thousands of Spanish-speaking laborers joined University of Wisconsin students and other supporters of the boycott Tuesday and marched from the peaceful Capitol protest to Brittingham Park.

Madison resident Rolando Fuentes joined the protesters Tuesday with some friends during his day off of work.

Fuentes said immigration is a difficult issue and said it has changed dramatically since he first came to the United States from Guatemala.

"I just don't think everybody should be a resident," Fuentes said. "I've been here for almost 20 years, before there were good jobs making more than $5 to $6 an hour, and even though I went to school, I'm unable to find a job — I'm washing dishes."

Fuentes said too much illegal immigration could hurt the economy when people send money home to their families rather than investing in the local area.

He also said the government should analyze the history of immigrants and check if they've been paying taxes and staying out of trouble before making them citizens.

"There are plenty of people that came to Madison just to sell drugs, but Immigration [and Customs Enforcement] needs to check records," Fuentes said. "They can't just give papers to everybody."

Compared to many Spanish speakers at the rally, UW freshman Catherine Procknow, whose parents were immigrants from Europe, said she's grown up with less discrimination because of her heritage.

"I feel like immigrants are the backbone of our country," Procknow said. "I feel like I am not discriminated against because (of) what I look like and these people are just like me, and they are."

–Keegan Kyle contributed to this report.