Immigrants without legal status in the US face unique obstacles before, during and after natural disasters

Many of the approximately 11 million immigrants without legal status in the United States not only live in regions more prone to natural hazards, but also face challenges in disaster preparedness and are more vulnerable to their impacts.

Now, health policy experts from the USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness at Texas A&M University have conducted the first national assessment of how U.S. citizens and their immediate family members who lack legal status in the United States view these risks, their barriers to evacuation and their level of trust in those providing disaster assistance.

In addition, the study expands on previous research by, for example, asking respondents about the impact of pets and livestock on their decision to evacuate following a natural disaster.

“These are important questions because immigrants without legal status are more vulnerable than others at every stage: before, during and after emergencies,” said Christine Crudo Blackburn, PhD, who led the study.

She said that language fluency is the primary obstacle, and although Spanish-language emergency information is helpful, thousands of immigrants in the United States have a different primary language and thus cannot understand emergency warnings or comply with instructions.

In addition, people lacking legal status might be unwilling or unable to evacuate prior to a disaster because they fear being identified by the authorities, have no safe place to travel or do not feel safe leaving, she said.

“Compounding these factors is the fact that immigrants are rarely included in disaster planning efforts and receive little to no public assistance after disasters,” said study author Matthew Boyce, PhD. “All of these combine to widen the gap between those with legal status and those without it in times of emergency.”

For the study, published in BMC Public Health, the research team conducted a nationwide, cross-sectional online survey in both English and Spanish from April 24 to June 3, 2024. Other center researchers involved with the study were Jason Moats, PhD, Mayra Rico, MPh, and graduate student Kirk Niekamp.

In addition to giving demographic and socioeconomic information, the 2,989 respondents answered questions about their attitudes about natural hazards, reasons for not complying with evacuation orders and how much they trusted assistance efforts after natural disasters. Of the respondents, 284 identified as individuals lacking legal status or the immediate family members of individuals lacking legal status.

For the survey, natural hazards referred to a variety of potential incidents arising as acts of nature including hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, snowstorms, heatwaves, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches and similar events.

“Interestingly, the largest percentage of respondents who reported that they were individuals or their immediate family members lacking legal status identified as white, not Hispanic or Latino, which is the reported majority,” Boyce said. “It is possible the members of that cohort who are white felt more comfortable responding to the question about legal status.”

Most the respondents with legal status were female, 54 years old or younger, identified as white, had at least some college (or less), were employed, had an annual household income of $49,999 or less, resided in a southern state and lived in a suburban setting.

Most of the respondents who lacked legal status or who had immediate family members lacking legal status were male, 34 years old or younger, identified as white, had a high school diploma (or less), were employed, had an annual household income below $49,999, resided in a southern state and lived in a suburban setting.

“We found that respondents who identified as individuals or their immediate family members lacking legal status are at higher risk of experiencing a natural hazard, have more barriers to complying with evacuation orders and, perhaps counterintuitively, have higher levels of trust in government entities,” Boyce said.

Regarding the impact of pets and livestock on the decision to evacuate, the study found that these respondents are less likely to follow evacuation orders if doing so meant leaving them behind.

“While evacuating livestock is logistically challenging and this burden falls on all such owners regardless of legal status, our study suggests that our respondents without legal status or with family members who lack legal status are less able than others to move their livestock and themselves to safety after a natural disaster,” Blackburn said.

Overall, Blackburn said policymakers could consider this new insight into the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by individuals or their immediate family members lacking legal status to influence the ways communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters.