May 1, Feature - May first, May Day, a day to recognize the struggle of the worker was an American struggle that has only taken hold outside the US.

In recent years, it has become associated with the immigrant workers struggle, many of whom are navigating through American society with out papers, fearful of getting caught and deported.

The issue has become politicized, so much so that Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate have refused to address immigration reform in 2008, this election year. That decision prompted members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to lash out against their leadership, calling them "spineless".

Regardless of the political will, residents on the border are trying to take matters into their own hands by marching through the desert Southwest.

Shannon Young traveled to the border and files this report.

Its hard to find anyone in the Rio Grande Valley who believes the proposed 18 foot high barrier will do much to deter undocumented immigration form the south. The wall is generally seen as an expensive, and simplistic approach to solving the problem.

One Houston based immigrant rights advocate, Maria Jimenez, points to problems stemming from immigration reforms passed in 1996.

"Before '96, an undocumented person could live in the United States seven years, and work and contribute, etcetera and then they could apply and adjust their status and become legal residents.

As the years have gone by, you have millions of people without any possibility of adjusting their legal status. While at the same time you have the growth of a strong anti-immigrant movement, spearheaded by many right wing groups, which have lead to the institution of other type of laws, local, state, and national, that are stripping the immigrant population of fundamental rights."

A border activist from Del Rio, TX, says the government is relying on a model of immigration enforcement that ultimately benefits private contractors.

"If you look at the billions of dollars that go in to tracking down one immigrant who has walked 400 miles, through the desert, nearly dead. And then turn around and arrest him and put him in a for profit prison.

That all costs us. And that money goes into the hands of just a few people. Is it really the immigrant that's costing us, or is it the mind set that's costing us?"