Nearly 1,000 protesters took to the streets of La Colonia on Sunday to encourage lawmakers to pass an immigration overhaul that would make legal residents of 11 million immigrants living in the United States, including an estimated 71,000 in Ventura County.

Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America; Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Oak Park; state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara; and Oxnard Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez helped lead the two-mile march that ended with a rally at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

The demonstration was one of seven organized this weekend in California and Washington state to honor UFW founder Cesar Chavez, whose birthday is March 31.

“If it wasn’t for immigrants in this country, there wouldn’t be an agricultural industry today,” Rodriguez said. “Without the skills and the professional workmanship of immigrant farmworkers today — that unfortunately don’t have papers — we wouldn’t have the fruits and vegetables on our tables that are grown here in the United States.”

About 14,000 undocumented farmworkers live in Ventura County, according to estimates by the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, an area nonprofit.

Spanish chants of “Yes, we can” and “The people united will never be defeated” drew many residents out of homes and businesses to watch the steady stream of flag-bearing people weave through the Oxnard neighborhood accompanied by dancers, beating drums, mariachi singers and burning sage.

Brownley, who took office in January, said she wanted to bring the community hope from Washington, D.C., that there is a “real chance this year to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

The national debate about immigration and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants resurfaced after November’s presidential election, when the power of the Latino vote was seen.

A bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Eight” has been working on legislation that would rework the country’s immigration system with a bill expected to be released in the next few weeks.

“I’m hopeful that when a bill comes forward it will be one that everyone can agree upon,” Brownley said. “The immigrants who are here are really a backbone of our economy. We need them out of the shadows and being responsible, taxpaying citizens. … That sentiment is really taking place certainly in Washington and across the country.”

Before the march, 10-year-old Desly Cayetano pulled Brownley aside to tell her that her father works in the field and that she wants “people in the field to have papers.”

Alejandro Cayetano, 37, who harvests blueberries in Camarillo, said the majority of field laborers he knows have no documents. The Oxnard resident of 16 years joined the protest with his wife and three children.

“Everyone came together for immigration reform … in order to have a better life, to have the benefits that we want because right now we can’t have them,” Cayetano said in Spanish.

Rodriguez stayed at the front of the march until he left for a similar protest in Fresno, where, he said, he expected 10,000 people. Nearly 15,000 protesters were expected in Salinas, 4,000 in Bakersfield and 1,000 in Santa Rosa for additional demonstrations Sunday, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the UFW and other national agricultural associations have been working closely with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to ensure farmworkers are recognized in the anticipated immigration bill.

“It’s important to protect people’s lives, and it’s important to treat people like human beings,” he said. “We are going to do everything we can to ensure that that happens in these negotiations.”

Set to graduate from Pacifica High School in June, David Gonzalez is a recent recipient of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which allows him to stay in the country even though he is not here legally. But Gonzalez, 18, said he joined the protest because more measures are needed.

While Gonzalez plans to study political science at CSU Northridge next fall, he said his parents are undocumented workers at an Oxnard packing facility.

“It’s not only for me,” he said. “It’s very important to be here for my parents also because they’re the original Dreamers.”