RALIEGH, N.C. -- Hundreds of demonstrators descend on the state capital today to add their voices to a nationwide call for immigration reform.

 

However, the crowds were not as large as those a year ago. Organizers say part of the reason is because of an enforcement crackdown by immigration agents.

 

"Ever since the raids and the crackdowns, workers have started to not stand up as much, because they are afraid, because they're afraid of being arrested and deported," said one protestor.

 

That is not the action these organizers were hoping for, in their call for reform.

 

"If we have continued to move towards a discussion of giving earned legalization to the undocumented immigrants living in this country, then why is it that we are now going after them using immigration, using local law enforcement."

 

Last April, the Department of Homeland Security announced targeted arrests at companies employing illegal workers, and this year deputies in Mecklenburg, Alamance and Gaston counties assumed limited immigration enforcement powers.

 

Immigrants, and their advocates, say parents are being deported in these stepped up enforcement efforts, and their children are being left here, abandoned.

 

"These children were born here, and everybody who was born in the United States is a U.S. citizen, just as everybody else who was born here."

 

Last year immigration and customs enforcement agents deported about 200,000 people. With this year's stepped up enforcements, agents have already deported three quarter as many people in just under six months.