Family Preparedness Plan: Difference between revisions
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'''Make the plan while things are calm.''' A family preparedness plan is not giving up, it is making sure that if the worst day comes, your children are picked up, your bills are paid, and your case starts moving within hours instead of weeks. Most families never need it. Every family is stronger for having it. | '''Make the plan while things are calm.''' A family preparedness plan is not giving up, it is making sure that if the worst day comes, your children are picked up, your bills are paid, and your case starts moving within hours instead of weeks. Most families never need it. Every family is stronger for having it. | ||
Latest revision as of 12:05, 27 July 2026
Make the plan while things are calm. A family preparedness plan is not giving up, it is making sure that if the worst day comes, your children are picked up, your bills are paid, and your case starts moving within hours instead of weeks. Most families never need it. Every family is stronger for having it.
Memorize, do not just save
Everyone in the family, including children old enough, memorizes two or three phone numbers: a trusted relative or friend, and a lawyer or hotline. Phones get taken.
Children and dependents
- Choose backup caregivers (first and second choice) and talk to them.
- Complete a caregiver authorization affidavit or power of attorney for your state so a named adult can make school and medical decisions. Legal aid groups and the ILRC publish state guides and free forms.
- Keep the school's emergency contact and pickup list current, with your backups on it.
- Write down routines a caregiver would need: medications, allergies, doctors, school times.
One documents folder
In one safe place a trusted person can reach, keep copies of:
- IDs, passports, birth certificates for everyone
- A-numbers and every immigration paper ever filed or received
- Medication lists, insurance cards, doctors
- Lease or mortgage, car title, bank details, bills list
Tell one trusted person exactly where it is.
Money
Arrange how rent and bills get paid if you are detained: joint account access, a trusted person, or automatic payments. Detention should not become eviction.
Legal, in advance
Have a consultation before any crisis: a screening can reveal relief options you did not know you had, and the lawyer's card in your wallet becomes the number your family calls on day one. See Finding an Immigration Lawyer.
The small kit
- A red card by the door, in each wallet, in the glovebox.
- The hotline numbers saved in every phone and written in the documents folder.
- A simple check-in agreement: "if I am not home by X and not answering, call Y."
If the day comes
The plan activates: caregiver takes the children, the trusted person opens the folder, the family follows If a Loved One Is Detained.