NEW YORK (1010 WINS)  -- Protesters waving American flags and flags of a dozen other countries filled Union Square on Monday as New Yorkers took part in a national day of protest by immigrants and their allies.

AUDIO: Battery Park Rally

Some small businesses were closed, and day laborers shunned the suburban shape-up sites where they usually gather.

"I'm out here today in support of all immigrants,'' Donna King, 60, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Trinidad 40 years ago, said at the Union Square protest. ``I hope this rally will make Americans realize that we are all important and that we all have rights.''

AUDIO: Brooklyn Rally

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said the protest was sending ``an unmistakeable message about working people and immigrants.''

``This rally really is about the huddled masses demanding that they too have a part of the American dream,'' he said.

AUDIO: Queens Rally

Earlier Monday, demonstrators formed human chains to protest a bill that would make it a felony to be in the country illegally.

VIDEO: Immigrants Rally Nationwide

On Manhattan's bustling 14th Street only a few shops were closed, including a Spanish-language bookstore and a tiny restaurant selling Cuban sandwiches and other Latin American fare.

Miriam Chaikin pulled on the door several times before noticing the sign that said ``Closed Monday May 1'' in English and Spanish.

``I was hoping to get beans and rice and plantains,'' she said.

``The country needs immigrants,'' Chaikin added. ``I think I would like them all to speak English and sing the national anthem in English the way my parents did, but we're a nation of immigrants.''

It was business as usual next door at the Papaya King. Dan Horan, who runs four Papaya King stores, said as far he knew none of his approximately 40 employees took the day off.

``It hasn't been an issue,'' he said.

The ``Day Without Immigrants'' protest was more noticeable in some suburban areas.

The Rev. Allan Ramirez, pastor of the Brookville Dutch Reform Church and an advocate for the Long Island immigrant community, said he visited numerous sites in Nassau County where day laborers gather and they all looked like ghost towns shortly after 6 a.m.

He said there were no workers in sight in Locust Valley, where normally 50 to 75 immigrants gather each morning; on Willis Avenue in Roslyn, where about 75 to 100 usually gather; or on Grand Avenue in New Cassel, where more than 350 immigrants congregate daily. Sites in Farmingdale, Freeport and Farmingville, one of the largest day laborer spots, also were empty, he said.

In Westchester County, most shops were shuttered along New Main Street in Yonkers, the commercial strip for a heavily Mexican neighborhood.

Businesses that closed included Pacheco's Video & Records, the Tuzantlan Deli-Grocery, a store called Aztec Pride, the Orza bakery, and the Mexicana Car Service.

Across the street from Mexicana, the Family Car Service was swamped, partly because Mexicana was closed and partly because half of Family's drivers were boycotting.

``The boss said if they want to take the day, take the day,'' said staffer Gerry Giminez.

At Sprainbrook Nursery Inc. in Scarsdale, owner Heidi Krautter said all of the 20 to 25 immigrant landscape and nursery workers were out.

``We're busy today and it's hurting,'' Krautter said. ``There's nobody out there now with the trees and shrubs.''

In New York City's Chinatown, one of the sites where human chains were formed, protesters held up signs that read: ``I love Immigrant New York'' and ``We Are America.''

About 100 people rallied in front of a statue of Confucius and then marched past busy noodle shops and produce stands.

Protester Diana Taylor, a professor of theater studies at New York University who is originally from Mexico, said New York is more hospitable to immigrants than many other parts of the country.

``I was offered a job in San Diego but I didn't take it,'' she said. ``I don't like the way they treat Mexicans in California.''

Uptown in the heavily Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, hundreds of immigrants and supporters marched along the sidewalks chanting ``Yes we can!'' in Spanish.

Demonstrators at several sites formed human chains at 12:16 p.m. to mark the day, Dec. 16, when the House of Representatives passed the bill that would make felons of illegal aliens. A version of the bill has stalled in the Senate.