Sacramento advocates urge Senate to extend TPS for Haitian immigrants

Members of the Haitian community, activists and nonprofit organizers called on Congress Thursday to pass legislation that would extend Haitians’ temporary protected status to 2029.

Read more Sacramento advocates urge Senate to extend TPS for Haitian immigrants

According to Giselle Garcia, the program director of immigration nonprofit NorCal Resist, advocacy group Ring of Democracy approached her team and proposed a press conference in opposition to the termination of TPS for Haitian immigrants. The groups organized the event in front of the John Moss Federal Building, which houses Sacramento Immigration Court.

TPS provides legal residency to immigrants who cannot safely return to their home countries for reasons such as political violence or natural disaster. The Supreme Court’s June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe said courts do not have the authority to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to rescind TPS for Haitian and Syrian individuals. The ruling led to the termination of TPS on Monday for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians nationwide.

“It was a demonstration of how much we care,” Garcia said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “To show them that we care, and as a community, we believe they’re a part of it and that they shouldn’t be going anywhere. They deserve to have a pathway where they can adjust and continue the lives they built here.”

NorCal Resist, Ring of Democracy and the Sacramento Central Labor Council hosted the press conference in partnership with Sacramento Area Congregations Together, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Sacramento Area Black Caucus and other community organizations.

“For many, the legal authorization that allowed them to work, provide for their families, and contribute to this country has come to an end,” said Volma Volcy, founder and executive director of Ring of Democracy, during the conference. “They now face the possibility of losing their livelihood and ultimately being displaced from communities that they’ve been involved in, some of them for the past 16 or 20 years.”

Many Haitians came to the U.S. under TPS in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in 2010. In the following years, TPS was extended as widespread political and gang violence endangered those still living in Haiti.

House version of the bill passed in April

Several speakers urged U.S. senators to pledge their support for Senate Bill 4814, a bill that would extend TPS for Haitians to April 20, 2029. The bill’s companion, House Resolution 1689, passed in the House of Representatives April 16.

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“We call upon every person who believes in compassion and justice to make their voice heard. Contact your senators. Ask them to support S4814,” Genesis Church Senior Pastor Tecoy Porter, president and executive director of National Action Network Sacramento, said during the conference. “Tell them that protecting Haitian families is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of human dignity.”

Aaron Jones, a senior field representative for Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento), echoed Porter’s call for action in the Senate.

“It should be un-American for us to take people in and then return them to danger,” Jones said. “We should be a place where we accept your huddled masses, your downtrodden. We should be the sanctuary … It is our belief that we, as a community, stand together. It is only through that unity that we can defend our city and defend the future that we want to have.”

Others cited fears of violence perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against Haitians with TPS, who now face an imminent threat of deportation. Volcy said in an interview that he believes ICE activity against Haitian immigrants will increase in the coming weeks.

“People are just living in fear and real trauma every day,” Volcy said. “My brother, for example. He has a mortgage. The first is coming up. Not going to work is not (possible). So he’s basically just waiting for something to happen at any point and not knowing when it’s going to happen.”

Throughout the event, advocates and community leaders stressed the need to organize on behalf of Haitian and other immigrant communities.

“This is an unjust society, and each and every one of us has the right and responsibility to choose which side we’re going to be on: the side for justice or the side against injustice,” said Ahjamu Umi, an organizer with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, at the conference. “We can’t be on the side for justice just by flapping our gums. We have to be engaged in daily work.”

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