Immigrant, labor and religious groups nationwide are gearing up for a new round of massive marches beginning the first week of September to press Congress once again to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

The “We Are America Alliance,” comprised of more than a dozen national and local pro-immigrant groups, is coordinating marches with other national and local organizations that will take place in such metropolitan areas as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

The Washington, D.C., event will be coordinated with the National Capital Immigration Coalition, which organized the huge pro-immigrant demonstrations held nationwide on April 10.

The September rallies will renew the call for the legalization of about 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. They are scheduled during Labor Day week when Congress returns from recess.

However, some groups such as Latino Movement USA, which was instrumental in the national May 1 boycott, are moving cautiously. "It's not too clear how effective these will be," Juan José Gutiérrez director of Latino Movement USA told Hispanic Link News Service. "Everybody wants to make symbolic calls."

Gutiérrez said his group is still reviewing and finalizing how it will engage in mobilization actions in September. "You don't want what happened on May 19," he said, in reference to a National Mall rally which brought together for the first time major mobilization leaders from Washington, D.C., and California. At that point, the leaders were still trying to reach consensus on structure, purpose and strategies to coordinate their efforts effectively. That rally, which some predicted could draw tens of thousands, barely attracted one thousand.

But Cheryl Aguilar, a spokesperson for the Center for Community Change, told Hispanic Link that more than 40 local grassroots organizations nationwide are rousing their communities to join the march in the nation's capital on September 7.

Aguilar said the coalitions are aiming to gather as many as one million undocumented immigrants and their supporters. The demonstration at the National Mall on April 10 drew about 500,000 people.

In Chicago, members of the March 10 Committee, named as such following the rally there on that date which brought 100,000 protesters to the streets, announced a four-day march – the Immigrant Workers Justice Walk – encompassing a 40-mile area starting September 1 and ending on Labor Day.

The walk will conclude at House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Chicago district office. Organizers also plan a hearing which they emphasize will be more inclusive of immigrants' concerns than those being held elsewhere by the U.S. House of Representatives this summer.

In Phoenix, there will be voter registration activities and a march to the state capitol building on September 4.

In Los Angeles, a rally is planned for September 9 at a location yet to be announced.