After last year's melee, Nunez hopes for peaceful May Day events in L.A. today

Los Angeles' 2007 May Day rally: Photo by Getty ImagesOutgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other Democrats will attend Thursday's May Day immigration and worker marches in downtown Los Angeles in a move broadening Nunez's Hispanic/liberal voter base.

The 2007 May Day march became an ugly, caught-on-tape clash between police and demonstrators. Sounding a bit like a man ready to run for governor, the 46th District's Nunez said in a statement Wednesday, "Last year's march was marred by the actions of agitators unaffiliated with the event and by overreactions from law enforcement...I look forward to taking part in a peaceful and successful march tomorrow."

Three marches supporting immigration, anti-war and labor causes will converge Thursday on downtown Los Angeles with organizers including the anti-war/North Korea-friendly far-left group International Answer. Splintered by the trio of marches' various causes means the total number of marchers likely will not be anywhere near the hundreds of thousands of Hispanics who filled downtown L.A. streets for the spring 2006 pro-immigration rallies. But the ‘06 organizers did not harness their event numbers into definable, specific growth of Hispanic power beyond aiding the Democrats' 2006 national sweep. Thus, Thursday's marches do not hold nearly the same political promise.

The main post-march rally near City Hall will be followed by a smaller Thursday evening rally at MacArthur Park, the site of last year's volatile clash between police and marchers.

Nunez also wants federal immigration agents to stop raiding factories employing undocumented workers and he thinks Homeland Security officials should appear before Congress.

"I'm also calling on the chairman of the Latino Legislative Caucus to hold hearings into the raids that we have witnessed here in Southern California over the last several months," the speaker said at a press conference Tuesday.

But like other Democrats who know immigration is a thorny California issue, Nunez tempered his criticism, saying immigration agents have a mission that is, "critical, and it is difficult to comply with however, without the legal and the policy framework...But the lack of an appropriate framework is absolutely no excuse to indiscriminately target businesses that are doing the right thing."