SEATTLE -- Smaller crowds than last year were reported at Tuesday's May Day immigration reform marches in Seattle and Yakima.

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In Seattle, police estimated about 4,000 people marched between Westlake Center and the Seattle Center, waving signs along with U.S. flags and the banners of Mexico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. No arrests were reported.

"We still demand the politicians in D.C. pass laws that protect the rights of all workers, especially those from Mexico and other Latin American countries ... that protect the rights of families to be unified," King County Council Chairman Larry Gossett said. "We have to stay on the streets until the D.C. politicians pass laws that provide a pathway to citizenship."

A much larger immigration rights march last year was marred by a car that struck a group of marchers on their downtown Seattle route. But this year, as in Yakima, the old farmworkers' chant of "Si, Se Puede" -- "Yes we can" -- rang out from protesters.

Elsewhere in the state, about 200 immigration rights supporters marched through downtown Olympia and about 30 Latino students and their supporters rallied in downtown Spokane.

Nationwide, Tuesday's rallies produced only a fraction of the million-plus protesters who turned out last year, as fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home.

"It doesn't matter what color our skin is. It doesn't matter what color our hair is, as we stand together and say justice needs to be served," Yakima Mayor Dave Edler said at Miller Park, before protesters set out on foot.

Many people traveled to Yakima from throughout the agricultural Yakima Valley, home to thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables. Growers largely rely on immigrants to harvest their crops.

Bulmaro and Teodora Arteaga of Granger, about 25 miles southeast of Yakima, brought their three children to the rally following a day of cutting asparagus. Originally from Guerrero, Mexico, the Arteaga family has been working fields in the Yakima Valley for about 10 years.

Their youngest, 20-year-old Mirian Rodriguez, said she was marching for change. She hopes to attend college but said she can't qualify for financial aid, despite being a legal resident.

"We are human, we want to have opportunities," she said. "They say we are bad for the country. We work in the fields. That is something many people don't want to do," she said, adding her family members were here legally as well.

Ruben Prieto, 45, a U.S. citizen who has lived in nearby Toppenish for 24 years and works as a groundskeeper at the local high school, expressed frustration about the lack of progress for reform.

"It is frustrating because we are making a big difference, even though there's still a lot of people who are underpaid for the work they do," he said. "It's not light work. It's heavy work, and that person has to be given respect for that work."

Police made only a handful of arrests, primarily gang members who had infiltrated the crowd, said Capt. Jeff Schneider of the Yakima Police Department.

About 75 people stood at one corner of the parade route to protest against the marchers, including a local group of Minutemen lobbying for a border crackdown. Waving signs that read "Scofflaws go home" and "Go back to your country," some jeered as the marchers walked by, but the event remained peaceful.

Bob West, a 35-year Yakima resident, gathered signatures for a petition seeking to cut off non-federally mandated services to illegal immigrants.

"If we had our druthers, we'd just cut off everything, because otherwise they just act as a magnet," he said. "We're essentially subsidizing those who are here illegally."