Lack of Indigenous-language interpreters compounds border tragedy

The fight over the use of Title 42 to turn away asylum-seekers at the southern border has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order temporarily maintaining the Trump-era measure that allowed the government to expel migrants under the pretense of public health.

The Supreme Court is poised to quickly decide the measure’s fate. When Title 42 expulsions do end — whether this week or in the new year — many of the new arrivals numbering in the thousands will not speak English or Spanish.

Instead, as many as 40% may speak Indigenous languages like Mam and K’iche’. Although these migrants may come from countries like Guatemala and Mexico, they often have limited command of Spanish and may not be able to read in any language.

The government isn’t ready for them.

The Border Patrol, immigration courts and detention centers don’t have nearly enough Indigenous-language interpreters to communicate with migrants. When officials can’t communicate with someone, they can’t provide appropriate medical care, explain legal procedures or understand why that person is seeking protection in the U.S.

Several weeks ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland asked federal agencies to take steps to protect people with limited English proficiency. He directed offices like  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to rewrite their required language access plans. As they draft and implement new plans, agencies should center Indigenous-language speakers’ language needs.

Under the law, federal agencies “must take reasonable steps” to protect non-English speakers’ rights. But in the immigration system, this doesn’t happen. Instead, Indigenous-language speakers are detained and deported without ever accessing interpreters who speak their languages.

In fiscal year 2019, ICE reported that it met fewer than half of the hundreds of requests it received for Indigenous-language assistance. This means that hundreds of people languished in detention without access to someone who spoke their language to help them communicate with officials. For some languages, like the Afro-Indigenous language Garifuna, ICE met zero reported requests for help.

The failure to provide interpreters has tragic consequences. Officials separate Indigenous children from their parents when, absent appropriate translation, the parents cannot communicate that their children are related to them. Without a way to explain their situations, the government deports asylum-seekers who may face torture and death. The lack of translation services means that three in four detained Indigenous-language speakers do not receive medical care when they request it.

Without interpreters, immigrant children die in detention. Over five months in 2018 and 2019, five Indigenous children died in government custody. At least one of their fathers later alleged that officials had not provided the required medical care because he could not communicate that his child was ill.

Skeptics may respond that it is simply too challenging to provide services to migrants who speak non-dominant languages, so the government should not have to do it. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services claimed several years ago that they had difficulty “finding competent translators to translate information in any of the Indigenous languages of Central America.”

It must not be looking very hard.

While it is true that it can be more challenging to find a Q’eqchi’ interpreter than a Spanish or French interpreter, it’s far from impossible. When I worked in legal aid, I located Indigenous-language interpreters through online networks and Indigenous-led organizations in the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala. If my scrappy, underfunded organization could find and hire appropriate interpreters to meet our Indigenous clients’ needs, then the U.S. government — with its immense power and resources — certainly can. 

As agencies rewrite their language-access plans, they should define the steps they will take to assist Indigenous-language speakers. The Department of Justice should ensure they stick to them.

Title 42 has been a disaster for Indigenous migrants. We can’t allow that disaster to continue after the policy ends. If the Biden administration does not rise to this challenge, families will be separated, people seeking protection will be deported to danger and more children will die.