A number of immigration advocates were arrested Tuesday during a protest in Washington, D.C. to urge President Barack Obama to unilaterally stop the deportations of undocumented immigrants. 

Dozens of advocates took part in the rally, which included religious and civil rights activists, Voice of America reports. 

The demonstrators chanted and prayed alongside undocumented immigrants near the White House, urging the president to stop deportations, saying they break up families. 

Julius Trimble, a methodist bishop, said he wants comprehensive, humane reform that also provides a pathway to citizenship for the country's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. 

"A majority of people who are detained and deported have no criminal record or have done no crime," he said. "They are just here because they don't have documentation and we don't have a pathway for dealing with those persons who are our neighbors or parts of our churches and who have businesses in our communities."

One of the undocumented immigrants at the rally was Gerardo Torres, a Mexico native who has lived in Arizona for more than 20 years. 

"I want to have the freedom to go to my country and visit my family and just the freedom of movement," Torres said. "That's all I want."

Police eventually arrested some of the protestors when they moved too close to the White House. 

Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the law should be changed to help the U.S. economy, not to yield to the demands of those who entered the country illegally or overstayed their U.S. visas. 

She believes Obama should not stop the deportation rate of undocumented immigrants. 

"Not only would it be a bad political move, it would be a horrible thing for public safety, national security, and immigration law enforcement in general for him to do that. Enforcement is already about as bare-bones as it gets," she said.

More than 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have been deported under Obama since he took office in 2009. The rapid rate of deportations under his administration is estimated to soon outnumber that of President George W. Bush, who had the highest rate of deportations. 

In November, Obama said he cannot curb deportations unilaterally, and must rely on congress to do so. 

"If in fact I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so," Obama said. "But we are also a nation of laws. That is part of our tradition."

The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill last year, but the legislation is languishing as the House deliberates. The GOP-led House has not yet made a move on passing reform, and House Speaker John Boehner has expressed doubt that reform legislation will pass in 2014.