Fourteen protesters chained themselves at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles Thursday as dozens of people gathered to protest Arizona's new immigration law and to call for amnesty for everyone in the country illegally.

The Los Angeles police are arresting activists who locked themselves in a circle and laid down on a street in front of the facility, blocking traffic at Commercial and Alameda streets for about four hours, police said.

The activists said in a statement released via e-mail that they were protesting Arizona's recently enacted SB1070 and other federal, state and local immigration enforcement laws.

They planned to block the entrance to the facility and to protest of the Arizona law they would refuse to cooperate with police by providing identification documents or their names.

The tough new law targeting illegal immigration is supposed to take effect in Arizona by August, but it's being challenged on a couple of fronts.

The law makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them.

"This detention center symbolizes the incarceration and internment of so many immigrants and the separation of families," the statement read.