Eight US lawmakers arrested in immigration reform march

Eight members of Congress were among several dozen people arrested as thousands of protesters converged on the US capital to demand immigration reform.

The yesterday's event resulted in a call by the White House for lawmakers to bridge their differences and "fix our broken immigration system" by allowing stalled legislation to move through the House of Representatives.

Police led away several protesters in plastic handcuffs after the marchers blocked a street at the foot of the US Capitol which houses Congress.

Organisers for the "Rally and March for Immigrant Dignity and Respect" said around 10,000 people turned out for the protest.

Protesters called for Congress to approve a swift overhaul of immigration laws which would enable 11 million undocumented workers to come out of the shadows and start a 13-year journey to citizenship.

The Democrat-controlled US Senate in June passed the most comprehensive immigration bill in a generation, with bipartisan support. But the Republican-dominated House is drawing up its own piecemeal reforms instead of an overarching bill.

Many Republicans consider the Senate bill too lax, and there is opposition within the party to the pathway to citizenship as laid out in the Senate legislation.

Last week, Democrats introduced their own separate bill, a comprehensive measure aimed at keeping the pressure on Republicans to move forward.

The protest was largely overshadowed by the political stalemate on Capitol Hill which has kept parts of the federal government shut down for the past week, and sent the US economy careening towards a possible first-ever debt default if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling by October 17.

But White House spokesman Jay Carney said the concern over immigration should serve to spur lawmakers into action.