When Hurricane Harvey struck the gulf coast, HILSC stepped up for immigrants in response and recovery, and is now building systems for the next disaster. HILSC developed 34 Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) recommendations, including ten HILSC commitments to guide coordinated emergency management planning for immigrants. The HAP is based on interviews with over 80 people from more than 40 agencies – including undocumented immigrants, immigrant-serving and emergency management professionals, and decision makers on funding and policy. The expertise of immigrant-serving and emergency management organizations have seldom been brought together in one plan.

Our research surfaced three primary opportunities to increase immigrant resilience: