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Non-English-speaking immigrants detained in Louisiana are being denied access to translation and interpretation services, leaving them unable to request medical care or file complaints about abusive treatment, immigrants’ rights advocates say. In some instances detailed in a recent report, the language gap has even interfered with detainees’ legal cases.
In August, human rights organizations submitted a complaint to U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversight bodies that claimed that an immigration detention center in Winnfield – Winn Correctional Center – showed a “systematic denial of language access” that prevented asylum seekers from receiving protections and violated detainee’s rights.
But in interviews, advocates indicated that language access issues stretch beyond that one facility, with implications in multiple federal agencies, including ICE and the Executive Office For Immigration Review – a U.S. Department of Justice agency that oversees immigration courts.
“People are detained and trapped in these jails and don’t have access to any materials in their language, let alone interpretation services to help them actually complete the [asylum] application and they’re unrepresented,” Sarah Decker, an attorney at RFK Human Rights and co-author of the complaint, said.
Though language access issues exist throughout the U.S. immigration system, they are pervasive in Louisiana, according to an August report on human rights abuses in detention facilities overseen by the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office.
“NOLA ICE is either unable or willing to provide consistent interpretation and translation services to people in need of it to secure their basic human rights,” the report, by RFK Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition said.
In one case detailed in the report, LaSalle Immigration Court in Jena rescheduled a hearing date for a 22-year-old Ethiopian man eight times because it could not find an interpreter.
The man told the groups that he struggled to request mental health care services and basic supplies, including new underwear, because he was not provided with adequate translation services while detained at River Correctional Center, a privately run facility in Ferriday.
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His complaints were mirrored by many other examples in the report, including detention officers shouting at immigrants in English and facility tablets that detainees can use to file grievances only offering English or Spanish interfaces.
“Detained noncitizens have meaningful access – no less than five hours a week – to law libraries, legal materials, and other equipment. Each facility provides a properly equipped law library in a designated, well-lit room that is reasonably isolated from noisy areas and large enough to provide reasonable access to all detained noncitizens who request its use,” an ICE Spokesperson said in an email. “There are several avenues for detained noncitizens to file grievances and/or complaints. … Facility policies include guarantees against any form of reprisal or retaliation.”
Unlike criminal defendants, most people battling immigration cases are not entitled to free representation. Few obtain a private attorney, meaning they are responsible for researching the law, building their own cases and filling out legal documents.
All immigrants seeking asylum or other types of protection in the United States are expected to complete an application form, called I-589, in English, regardless of their English proficiency.
“We’re seeing people who are simply unable to complete that form and the immigration judges in this region will simply deny applications for relief on that basis,” Decker said.
Decker said judges can choose to complete the form with the asylum applicants using a court interpreter.
“I think that immigration judges have a duty to assist pro se respondents and help them develop the record.”
In an emailed statement, Kathryn Mattingly, an EOIR press secretary said “immigration judges are independent adjudicators.”
“Immigration judges do not assist noncitizens with completing asylum applications,” Mattingly said. “However, the judge may review the application with the noncitizen to confirm they know and agree with what the application contains.”
‘Sir, there is nothing you can do’
One person highlighted in the August report shows how a lack of translation services inside immigration detention centers can hobble asylum seekers’ legal cases.
Last year, a Ghanaian national who was being held at Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center while he applied for protected status in the U.S. on the basis of his sexual orientation.
The man, identified in the report by the pseudonym Awusi, relied on fellow African detainees inside the facility to complete his application form, because he could not read or write in English. He had no way of checking it for accuracy. His first language is Twi, spoken in Southern and Central Ghana. The language barrier created inconsistencies between details in the application form and what he relayed to the immigration judge.
RFK Human Rights shared court documents from the case, including transcripts from hearings, with Verite News.
Awusi was pleading his case in Oakdale Immigration Court before Judge Cassie Thogersen, a Trump administration appointee. According to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, between 2018 and 2023, Thogersen — who has worked for two immigration courts in the state — denied about 92% of asylum claims that came before her, compared to the national average of about 60%.
In a May 2023 hearing Awusi, speaking through an interpreter, argued his case for being allowed to stay in the country. He explained how in 2019 he and his boyfriend were dragged out of an Accra nightclub and severely beaten.
Once in court, it appeared that Awusi’s case hinged on how well details he relayed to Thogersen matched the information in his application.
“This is the statement in your application, and this statement is different than the story you just told the Court,” Thogersen said, according to a hearing transcript.
She pointed out discrepancies, like whether “close friends” took him to the hospital “a few days” after the beating, as his application said or whether bystanders who witnessed the beating took him to the hospital on the same night as the attack, as Awusi said in court.
“What I’m saying now is the truth,” Awusi said, according to the transcript. “On the application I was narrating and someone was writing it … and because of my educational background, I couldn’t even … read and understand what was on there.”
Awusi’s limited English proficiency was not something Thogersen considered. At his final hearing in June 2023, she denied protection from deportation to Ghana.
“The Court finds that you are not credible,” she said, according to the court transcript. “… Your statements were inconsistent with your application…”
“What should I do for you to believe me?” Awusi asked.
“Sir, there is nothing you can do.” Thogersen replied.
Verite attempted to contact Thogersen for comment. Calls to multiple numbers within the Oakdale and Jena courts went unanswered and unreturned.
Decker said she encountered Awusi in an immigration detention center in Batavia, New York where he was sent after the hearing, when detainees in his housing unit alerted RFK advocates about him. She said if the other detainees hadn’t intervened, Awusi would have “slipped through the cracks.” At the time, he had only one day to submit a notice that he would appeal Thogersen’s decision. RFK filed the notice on his behalf.
The federal Board of Immigration Appeals sent the case back to Thogersen, requesting she issue a new decision.
“On appeal the applicant argues the Immigration Judge’s original decision did not address the explanations, as raised by the applicant at his final hearing, for the identified inconsistencies, including his limited access to interpretation or translation services and the existence of memory problems associated with past head trauma,” the Board of Immigration Appeals said in its decision.
Thogersen eventually granted Awusi a protection called withholding of removal – which bars the federal government from deporting him to Ghana, but does not provide a path to U.S. citizenship. According to the report, he lives in Illinois.
“If we did not happen to encounter him, he would’ve received a final order of deportation and would have waived his right to appeal,” Decker said. “Had he been deported it is highly likely that he would’ve been subjected to persecution in the form of physical abuse. He may have been killed by the same vigilante groups that persecuted him before.”
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.