A Pasadena-based nonprofit is co-organizing a daylong immigrant rights summit in Oxnard on Sunday, Sept. 6. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), which runs the Pasadena Community Job Center at 500 N. Lake Ave., is one of four groups hosting the event.

The gathering, titled "La Defensa del Pueblo: A Summit to End the Terror Against the People," will run from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard. It will feature workshops, panels and cultural performances, according to the summit's website.

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, whose 25th Senate District covers Pasadena, Altadena and much of the San Gabriel Valley, is among the featured speakers. Also scheduled are Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Keith Porter Sr., whose son Keith Porter Jr., 43, was fatally shot by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer outside a Northridge apartment complex on Dec. 31, 2025.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the officer responded to what he believed was an active-shooter situation. Porter's family has disputed that account, saying he was firing celebratory rounds into the air on New Year's Eve. The Los Angeles Times reported the officer was later identified as Brian Palacios. The Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County district attorney's office opened investigations into the shooting.

Porter Jr. was a father of two daughters.

NDLON, headquartered in Pasadena and led by co-executive director Pablo Alvarado, joins three other co-hosts: Ventura County Defensa (VC Defensa), a volunteer-based immigrant rights group; 50501 SoCal; and United Teachers Los Angeles, Pasadena Now reported.

The summit comes amid heightened federal immigration enforcement that has touched Pasadena directly. Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Job Center, opened a July 25 vigil at Villa Parke organized by NDLON to mourn two men killed in separate ICE shootings. "There's a collective grieving, there's a collective outcry and outrage of these operations," Madera said at the vigil.

According to the summit's website, the gathering aims to unite immigrant rights activists, faith leaders, labor unions, legal workers and civil rights advocates. VC Defensa said it has faced federal scrutiny, citing Task Force Group 4, a DHS unit whose existence The New York Times reported in March 2026. VC Defensa said the unit was established to scrutinize and intimidate the organization.

Details and a schedule are available at defensadelpueblo.org.