Pasadena Labor Groups Join Ventura County Coalition for Sept. 6 Immigration Summit

A coalition of labor unions, faith leaders, and immigrant rights groups is converging on Ventura County next month to confront what organizers describe as a year of deadly federal immigration enforcement and targeted raids on grassroots activists. The Pasadena-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network is one of four organizations announcing the “La Defensa del Pueblo: A Summit to End the Terror Against the People,” set for September 6 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center. Organizers plan to formally announce details Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Ventura County Defensa, a volunteer-based immigrant rights organization, is serving as the core host of the summit, according to Pasadena Now. United Teachers Los Angeles and 50501 SoCal round out the four host organizations. NDLON, a national nonprofit network headquartered in Pasadena, organizes and advocates for day laborers, migrant workers, and low-wage workers, with work that spans worker-center development, leadership training, and wage-theft and workplace-rights campaigns. The network also lists staff positions at the Pasadena Community Job Center.

A Year Marked By Fatal Encounters

Central to the organizers' grievances is the New Year's Eve shooting death of Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old man fatally shot outside a Northridge apartment complex by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into the shooting, which occurred on December 31, 2025. Court documents have since identified the officer as Brian Palacios, and in August, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman met with Porter's family as they urged him to send the case to a grand jury, according to the Los Angeles Times. Charging decisions remain under review.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the off-duty officer believed he was responding to an active-shooter situation and fired after Porter pointed a rifle at him. Porter's family disputed that account, saying he was firing celebratory rounds into the air on New Year's Eve. Keith Porter Sr. is scheduled to appear at the upcoming summit. Hoodline previously covered a Northridge vigil held for Porter days after the shooting, and later reported on his family's rally at the Hall of Justice demanding charges against Palacios.

Federal Task Force Draws Scrutiny From Ventura Group

Ventura County Defensa has said it was targeted by a Department of Homeland Security unit known as Task Force Group 4, which the group described as established to scrutinize and intimidate it. The New York Times reported the task force's existence in March, per the dossier's sourcing on the matter. Task force Group 4 was assigned to investigate organizations involved in illegal activities during protests, though a May investigative report from L.A. Taco found that 50 to 60 members and volunteers of the group faced federal raids, property seizures, and vehicle rammings by Homeland Security agents, with no members convicted of federal charges.

Vc Defensa has described National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 as a blueprint for classifying dissent against the administration's agenda as domestic terrorism. President Trump issued NSPM-7 on September 25, 2025, directing federal agencies to investigate and disrupt organized political violence. Following that order, Attorney General Pam Bondi released an internal Department of Justice memo in December instructing federal prosecutors and the FBI to prioritize investigating anti-fascist actors, NGO funding networks, and the tax compliance of political groups, according to DLA Piper.

A Ventura Raid That Preceded the Coalition

Ventura County has its own history feeding into the summit's formation. On July 10, 2025, federal agents and National Guard troops conducted what became known as the Glasshouse Raids against farmworkers in the county, resulting in street clashes and the death of farmworker Jaime Alanís Garcia, as reported by Vida Newspaper. That raid served as a catalyst for organizing Ventura County Defensa well before the summit was announced.

Nationally, media reporting has counted at least 13 people shot, five fatally, by Department of Homeland Security officers, including ICE and Border Patrol agents, between June 2025 and February 2026, according to Capital & Main. Organizers point to that broader pattern as part of what they call the Trump administration's attacks on grassroots groups.

Elected Officials and National Labor Leaders on the Program

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents Pasadena, Altadena, and much of the San Gabriel Valley in California's 25th Senate District, is scheduled to speak at the summit. Pérez was elected in November 2024, chairs the Senate Education Committee, and has authored legislation protecting local disaster survivors from predatory real estate practices, per Ballotpedia. Hoodline has separately reported on Pérez joining Eaton Fire survivors headed to Sacramento alongside NDLON to press lawmakers for rebuild funding.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is also scheduled to speak. Nelson has spearheaded national union efforts aligning organized labor with civil rights and immigrant rights coalitions against what those groups characterize as federal enforcement overreach, according to AFL-CIO News. Summit organizers say participants will come from across the country, intending to bring together immigrant rights activists, faith leaders, labor unions, community organizations, civil rights advocates, legal workers, and others focused on defending democratic rights and civil liberties.

The gathering follows months of local organizing by NDLON, which Hoodline has documented through a Pasadena convention of day laborers confronting 18 months of ICE raids near Home Depot hiring sites, and through ongoing vigils at an Old Pasadena corner that Hoodline previously described as having become a gathering point over federal shootings. More information on the September 6 summit is available at defensadelpueblo.org.