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Mary Richards and Samantha Hayes ReportingDet. Kevin Joiner, Salt Lake Police Dept.: "Any time there is going to be a large gathering, obviously we are going to beef up security."
Thousands of people are expected downtown this weekend to voice their opinions about immigration reform. But opposing viewpoints may lead to trouble, and police are beefing up security to keep the peace.
This has been simmering for the last couple of weeks. You have seen several student demonstrations. Now hundreds of people are being called to march to the State Capitol Sunday.
At 1550 AM, a local Spanish radio station, the phones were ringing off the hook this morning with questions about Sunday's March and Monday's rally. Most everyone calling is in support of the events, but there are also concerns over security.
Tony Yapias, Project Latino of Utah: "There's concerns about problems with minute men, but we've been working with Salt Lake police to make sure we keep our troops together, separate."
Det. Robin Snyder: "We don't really anticipate any problems with this, other than the traffic was probably our main concern. We just want to make sure we're able to get them on their march from the City and County building up to the Capitol and back without having any injuries."
Kevin Joiner: "We are not going into details about how many or in what capacity, but we will bring more people on and we will have people in place to make sure the weekend runs smoothly."
Salt Lake City police are expecting at least two to three-thousand people downtown. Officers say, with their experience handling the LDS General Conference twice a year and the Olympics in 2002, they don't expect any problems. Their goal is that everyone stay safe.
Salt Lake Police Detective Robin Snyder says drivers will want to avoid State Street as both groups march to the Capitol. She says smaller crowds are expected to be here for rallies on Monday.
