A group of nearly 200 Georgetown students marched in Wednesday’s 90-degree heat from the Hilltop to Capitol Hill, joining a crowd of thousands in a rally for immigration reform.

The Georgetown University Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization that works with student groups including Hoyas for Immigrant Rights, the Asian American Student Association, MEChA and GU Pride, organized a Georgetown contingency to join the rally.

The rally was organized as a precursor to a comprehensive immigration reform bill that is expected to be introduced in Congress next week. The event was sponsored by several organizations, including the Center for Community Change, Service Employees International Union and United Auto Workers.

“[We] are coming together to show Congress they need to get moving on a bill for comprehensive immigrant reform,” Donna De La Cruz, press secretary for the Center for Community Change, said.

Christina Gil (COL ’13), public relations coordinator for Hoyas for Immigrant Rights, called attention to the diverse support for immigration reform.

“It’s been portrayed as [just] a Latino issue, and it’s really not,” Gil said.

Shaiesha Donnelly (SFS ’15), — a rally organizer — agreed, pointing to the diverse crowd of students that turned out Wednesday.

“To have representatives for Georgetown march shows everyone how diverse we are and shows how support for immigration reform isn’t limited to the groups it’s been associated with in the past,” Donnelly said. “Georgetown made a big difference today.”

Approximately 100 Georgetown students began marching from the Healy Gates and were gradually joined by more students and members of the larger Georgetown community on their way to the Capitol.

“I think it was a huge success,” Lisa Frank (COL ’13) said. “More and more people kept joining our group. Just being able to walk down with a great group of people who had a lot of energy … was pretty cool. It’s great that we have the ability to go and do things like this.”

A major focus of the demonstration was the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, a legislative proposal from Sen. Dick Durbin (SFS ’66, LAW ’69), a Democrat from Illinois, and Sen.Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would provide conditional permanent residency to certain undocumented immigrants who join the military or who choose to attend a four-year college or university.

Hoyas for Immigrant Rights sponsored a screening of “Dreamer: A True American Story,” a film about an undocumented young person, held in Lohrfink Auditorium following the rally.

McDonough School of Business Dean David Thomas expressed his support of the DREAM Act at the screening.

“When a DREAMer shared his story with me, I became educated about this issue in a way that surprised me,” he said.

The university has also said it is in favor of changing the nation’s immigration system.

“We are strongly supportive of making sure that provisions like the DREAM Act are included in the immigration reform bill,” Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming said. “I’m pretty optimistic that will happen. I would be shocked if not.”

Fleming said the university supports several other important immigration reform measures such as visas for science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduate students, calling it a “high-priority concern.”

De La Cruz said that students have a unique and important role to play in the movement.

“We definitely see that young people have stepped forward and become a vital part of battling to get immigration reform passed,” she said.

Selene Ceja (COL ’13), media team organizer for the Georgetown rally, agreed with this assessment.

“I think our impact is we want to have immigration reform talked about … so people can be aware of what immigration reform is,” she said. “We’re trying to humanize the movement, trying to create a pathway to citizenship so it will be fair and just.”