A couple dozen North Texans with a mission are on board the so-called "Freedom Bus" and are bound for Arizona.
The group is headed west to protest the Arizona's immigration law that passed last month. The law allows police officers to ask for documention from anyone who is suspected to be in the country illegally.
With bags packed and ready to go, and carrying American flags, protestors of various ethnic backgrounds boarded the bus to show support for federal immigration reform. They'll make stops to rally in Odessa, El Paso and Nogales, Ariz., all cities where more buses will join them on their journey to Phoenix.
"We need to get it across the finish line," Mega March 2010 organizer Domingo Garcia, a Dallas attorney, said. "That means we got about six more months where Congress can get this done."
To the U.S. citizens and immigrants aboard the bus, their trip to Arizona represents "freedom and opportunity" for all.
"A lot of the opposition is rooted in racism and ignorance," Cassandra Gandara, another local attorney, who is on her first interstate trip of its kind, said. "I think people have forgotten that we are a country of immigrants."
Fiday night the group plans to stay on an Indian reservation to boycott the state of Arizona. Then Saturday they plan a protest at the state capitol and hopefully visit with the sheriff who has backed the controversial new law.
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The Dallas Tea Party is organizing its own rally for Memorial Day weekend in Tempe, Ariz.
"We thought it was the right thing to do is to stand with the people of Arizona in countering this boycott with a 'buycott' in bringing in Americans from all over the country on Memorial Day weekend to support the economy of Arizona," founder Phillip Dennis said.
The "Freedom Riders" plan to return to Dallas late Sunday night.
