SAN DIEGO -- Several hundred people gathered in Chicano Park for the fifth consecutive year Saturday to demand comprehensive immigration reform. They say they’re more hopeful than ever that legislation will come soon, now that President Barack Obama has been talking about immigration reform.

Some organizers of the event who 10News spoke with Saturday may want to go further than others. Two members of the student group MEChA told us they don’t think there should be a border at all. One member reiterated MEChA long-held position that California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were all taken illegally from Mexico in the war that lasted from 1846 to 1848. The land became part of the United States following the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

MEChA member Hugo Gonzalez said the land should revert to Mexico. He said it was at one time part of the larger Aztec empire called Aztlan and that’s what it should become again.

For now, MEChA said it wants an immediate end to raids by agents of the immigration and customs enforcement department. They’re also calling for the border with Mexico to be “de-militarized.”