Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians is a deeply troubling decision, one with painful human consequences that should give all of us pause.

At Worcester Community Action Council, we have stood beside our immigrant neighbors for decades. They are woven into the fabric of this city and extending communities — raising children through the public school system, strengthening our workforce while expanding our small businesses, paying taxes, owning homes, and building lives here.

We firmly disagree with the  court’s ruling, and we do not believe the story ends here.

The Supreme Court decision impacts our families while also dismantling our frontline workforce.  When status is taken away from a population, so is their ability to work — leaving fewer hands in settings that are already stretched thin: healthcare, social services, early education, small businesses, and other sectors that are the foundations of our communities. The result will be an exasperation of real workforce shortages, the loss of cultural richness and tradition, and ripple effects across our local economy. The people who feel this are our coworkers, our peers, and our neighbors.

This comes at the same moment that hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents are impacted by changes in SNAP, and bracing to lose health coverage early next year, as new Medicaid restrictions take hold.

When policies are designed to single out a population, the harm only starts there before it spreads. Eventually, it reaches all of us. The truth is, the “other” was always one of us.

In the spirit of community action, WCAC invites each of us to reach out to Senators Warren and Markey, urging them to move forward on H.R. 1689 — the House-passed bill that would extend Haitian TPS for three years — and to similarly reach out to the Healey administration to fully fund the Massachusetts Access to Counsel initiative.

We stand with our Haitian brothers and sisters and our agencies and partners like RISE, ARISE, RIAC, Ascentria and so many others.

It would be a mistake to see this as someone else’s concern and as a community in action, we will continue to show up together: hopeful, united, and unafraid.