The US-Mexico border wall at Playas de Tijuana covered in colorful murals and messages of hope, extending into the Pacific Ocean

Human Security Initiative

Safety and dignity for all

HUMSI leads research, advocacy, and education to protect human rights and promote security for vulnerable people.

We're documenting more than 5,000 stories of people impacted by U.S. immigration enforcement.

Explore the Human Impact Project Learn About Our Work

Our Mission

Research, Advocacy, Education

The Human Security Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting safety and dignity for all people. We conduct field research alongside affected communities, document human rights harms, and turn that evidence into advocacy and education for justice and accountability worldwide.

Research

Conducting field research and analysis on human rights and global justice issues, grounded in the firsthand experiences of affected people. Recent work includes studies of climate-driven displacement, documentation of conditions along migration routes, and interviews with deportees in Mexico whose testimony is preserved in the Human Impact Project.

Advocacy

Turning evidence into accountability. Through the Human Impact Project, we preserve thousands of documented accounts of harm from immigration enforcement, and we work with communities, policymakers, and institutions to advance protections for vulnerable people.

Education

Developing practice guides, trainings, and legal education for advocates, practitioners, and universities. HUMSI lectures on climate and migration at U.S. universities and leads a legal education partnership with the University of Rwanda.

Our Work

People walking in line at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing, depicting immigration enforcement operations

Featured Project

Human Impact Project

The Human Impact Project is a bilingual, daily-updated database documenting more than 5,000 U.S. immigration enforcement incidents and the human stories behind them. The database centralizes incidents from hundreds of news sources, federal court records, government oversight reporting, and community accounts, and supplements the public record with never-before-told testimony from HUMSI's own on-the-ground interviews with people deported from the United States. Every incident appears on an interactive map and can be searched by type of harm, who was affected, and where enforcement took place, and every source is archived so the historical record survives even if the original reporting disappears. History has shown that documentation is the foundation of accountability. The Human Impact Project is an affiliated project of CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.

More than 5,000 incidents documentedOriginal testimony from interviews with deporteesUpdated daily in English and SpanishSearchable by harm type, person impacted, and location

Explore the Database

Migrants gathered at a humanitarian aid station, representing field research on the health impacts of detention and deportation

Health Impacts of Detention & Deportation

Partners: Physicians for Human Rights, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center

HUMSI is leading a research project on the health impacts of detention and deportation with Physicians for Human Rights and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, including 2026 field research with deportees in southern Mexico. The report will be published in early 2027.

Community members navigating a flooded, eroded street after severe weather, showing the direct environmental impacts that drive displacement

Climate, Environment & Displacement

Partners: International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), Stanford Law School, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center

HUMSI designed and led the Climate of Coercion research project, a groundbreaking investigation drawing on field research with displaced people at the U.S.-Mexico border to examine the intersection of climate impacts with other drivers of displacement. The project set the foundation for further research in this field. Our ongoing work includes consultation for IRAP's Climate program, development of practice guides for climate-related asylum claims, and legal frameworks to protect climate-displaced populations.

Publications

Migrants walking along a path through a village in the Darien Gap region, carrying backpacks on their journey through Central America

Cross-Border Mobility & Migration

Partners: Immigrant Defenders Advocacy Center, Quixote Center, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Witness at the Border, American Immigration Council, Red Franciscana Para Migrantes

HUMSI conducts research examining conditions faced by displaced people along migration routes in the Americas. Our work includes documenting violence, environmental impacts, and other challenges along migration routes to support advocacy for safe and legal migration pathways. HUMSI led field research and a coalition report on challenges faced by individuals crossing the Darién Gap connecting Colombia and Panama.

Publications

An institutional building in a rural East African highland landscape, representing international educational collaboration

Education & Training

Partners: Stanford Law School, University of Rwanda Law School, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz

HUMSI provides research, writing, and support for Stanford Law School's Rule of Law Program, including a legal education project on the laws and legal institutions of Rwanda with University of Rwanda faculty. HUMSI's director also delivers guest lectures and trainings on climate-related mobility and border policy at universities including UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UC Santa Cruz.

Our Team