They brought containers filled with rice and sealed with tape, which read “Justice for Migrants Now.”

Maria Vivanco and her fellow members of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Student Movement of Chicanos from Aztlan), a student organization at the University of San Francisco, came ready to make some noise.

“We wanted something that would make a rattle sound to bring solidarity and bring people together,” said Vivanco, 21, a politics and Latin American major at the USF.

She was among about 100 supporters, who stood at the plaza on 24th and Mission streets, Sunday, Feb. 5. The rally was organized by the Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minute Men as a part of the Caravan for Migrants, a cross country caravan to Washington D.C. to protest the new bill, HR 4437. The bill - which was introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R - WI) in late January - calls for the harsher punishment of illegal immigrants.

If the bill passes, illegal immigration will be considered an aggravated felony. This is also extended to any smugglers involved as well as anyone who provides illegal immigrants water or any other provisions along the way.

The Border Angels, the group behind the Caravan for Migrants, has volunteers which distribute water to migrants making the trip across the desert.

“If they pass a law or not, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing,” said Enrique Morones, the president of Border Angels, a nonprofit migrant support group.

One SF State student attended in support of her birth family still living in Santiago, Chile, where she was born. When she was born, her mother already had seven other children to support.

“It’s really about going back to where I’m from and supporting it,” said Lola Chavez, 18, who is studying technical theater. Chavez, who is adopted, is still in contact with her birth mother and siblings who live in a tiny shack together.

“If I wasn’t able to come over to this country then I’d probably just be dead,” Chavez said. “Just seeing those conditions…the money I earn, I send back to them because I’d be in the same situation.”

Alfredo Najera III, whose comments were not well received by the protestors, thought the bigger issue was the corruption of the Latin American governments.

“It hurts me when I see them dying and being discriminated,” he said. “But we have to look at the source of the problem.”

Najera, an ex-radical turned Republican, was born in Los Angeles and raised in San Francisco, but lived in Guatemala with his grandparents from age 3 to age 8.

“People come here to demand something they are not willing to demand back home,” said Najera, who once was the vice chairman of the San Francisco California Hispanic Republican Assembly.

Najera thinks the border patrol is just doing its job. He said it’s an important contribution in keeping terrorists out of the country, citing the long underground tunnels drug cartels use as an easy way of smuggling terrorists.

“It’s their job, like the military’s is to inflict pain, to kill, that’s what their job is,” Najera said.

The caravan, which began in San Diego last Thursday, plans to visit about 20 other cities to meet with local activists not only in protest of the bill, but also to remember those who died at the border.

The Border Angels plan to erect 4,000 white crosses, one for every person who has died since 1994 - which marks the beginning of Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego, according to Morones.

Operation Gatekeeper involved the building of a border fence made of surplus military landing mats, ground sensors and infrared cameras.

“When I came here, somebody was fighting for me, so now I fight for them,” said Mercedes Moreno, a member of Witness For Peace, a politically independent, grassroots organization. She left El Salvador in 1976, and she now lives in San Fernando Valley. She will be making the rest of the trip, which will end with a protest in Washington D.C.

The Caravan has already erected more than 400 crosses. One cross was held in memory of a 20-year-old San Diego man who, after being spotted, ran away from the border toward Mexico and was shot, said Morones. He died a few days later.

Under a tree in the plaza, Morones and Moreno used bumper stickers to adhere a white cross to a tree before marching with the other supporters to 16th Street. Roses and the words, “NO OLVIDADOS,” which means “Not forgotten,” were painted on the cross.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to be telling Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘hasta la vista right now,’” said Morones. “Not because we’re leaving, but because he’s leaving.”