Sacramento Leaders Press Senate on Haitian TPS Bill
Volcy said he did not know of any Sacramento-area Haitian immigrants with pending immigration court dates and that he was not aware of anyone locally who had been deported yet, calling it “still early.” But he cited reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is ramping up operations well beyond California, naming Massachusetts and Florida as states where activity is picking up. “This is all over, around the country,” he said.
Dr. Tecoy Porter, who addressed the crowd on behalf of Sacramento’s faith and labor coalition, also called on the Senate to take up S.4814, which would restore and extend TPS for Haiti through 2029. He described the bill’s passage as a moral test rather than a partisan one.
“Those conditions plainly exist in Haiti today,” Porter said, pointing to violence, political instability, displacement, hunger and the breakdown of essential services. “Sending people into these circumstances would not advance justice or public safety. It will expose human beings to danger while separating families and disrupting workplaces and communities here at home.”
Porter argued that TPS reflects the basic principle that the United States should not force people back to a country where conditions make return unsafe. He urged residents to contact their senators directly and tell them that “protecting Haitian families is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of human dignity.”
Heidi Phipps, who leads court watch and accompaniment efforts at the immigration court for NorCal Resist, said her organization has tracked ICE enforcement patterns in the region for nearly a decade, with volunteers stationed at the courthouse since 2018 and a formal court watch program running since May of last year. She said the decision to end TPS for Haitians serves no purpose beyond cruelty, arguing it also makes affected immigrants more vulnerable to labor exploitation and to being targeted by ICE.
“We have firsthand seen how ICE is tormenting our Sacramento community,” Phipps said, calling on Congress to create a lawful pathway to legal status and naturalization for Haitian immigrants.
The Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign issued a statement echoing the rally’s message, describing the Mullin v. Doe ruling as part of a pattern of decisions that disproportionately affect immigrants of color. The organization called extending TPS “a moral imperative for human rights” and urged residents to press California’s senators to support S.4814.
Speakers closed the rally reiterating a central message: that Haitian TPS holders in Sacramento and nationally are established members of their communities — working, paying taxes and raising families — and that their future should not be decided by which party controls Washington.