Indigenous asylum seekers are fighting for interpreters in the US Indigenous Rights News

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – For Claudia, it was a complicated journey from her small Guatemalan village to the U.S.-Mexico border, where she could only speak her native Ixil, one of Guatemala’s 21 Mayan languages.

On the way to what he hoped would be an asylum in the United States, he communicated with smugglers with hand gestures and a few Spanish words he knew to go to the water, food, money, and toilets.

Claudia and her four-year-old son, Manuel, arrived at the U.S. border in late December 2020. His smugglers left him on a highway near Rio Grande and told him to cross the dry river and turn himself. U.S. Border Patrol. Claudia did not want to publish her last name for fear of reprisals.

He said Border Patrol agents took pictures, fingerprinted them both and sent them to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on the same day. If he gave any instructions, he would not understand them.

After spending eight months in the El Buen Samaritano hostel in Ciudad Juarez, Claudia has begun to speak Spanish, but it’s not enough to understand what’s going on with the immigration case or what she should do.

“I understand more Spanish than I speak it. I try to tell everyone that I understand what they are telling me, but sometimes it makes it difficult for me to communicate, to ask some questions, ”he told Al Jazeera, stopping Spanish.

Claudia and dozens of languages ​​like her, such as Spanish or Portuguese, have not been able to speak for months or years on the U.S.-Mexico border because there are few or no interpretations of the native language spoken by the immigration and asylum systems.

Long wait

Hostel director Juan Fierro said Claudia will surely have to wait before applying for asylum.

“We have turned to international aid organizations to try to find the Ixil interpreter, because without it they will not be prosecuted,” he told Fierro Al Jazeera through the US system.

Almost all of the 500 asylum seekers who stayed at the Fierro shelter from January to June 2021 have left to make claims in the US after waiting between six and 12 months. Only those recently deported to Mexico and Claudia remain.

Fierro has taken in more than 50 non-Spanish-speaking migrants and asylum seekers, most of whom speak only Mayan languages ​​in the first half of 2021 – almost double the total by 2020.

Claudia Cuidad has been in the Juarez shelter since December 2020 with her son Manuel [Luis Chaparro/Al Jazeera]

“Most people get tired of waiting for an interpreter and go back to their hometown. Very few have to wait to get an interpreter and start the immigration process, ”Fierro said.

This year, the number of migrants and asylum seekers from small towns who speak only their traditional languages ​​caught at the border almost doubled, creating a long delay in the legal immigration system.

Amiena Khan, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said most cases of indigenous language speakers are being reprogrammed due to a lack of trained interpreters.

“The problem we are seeing is that there are too few indigenous interpreters in our community, especially for Mayan languages, and cases are being rescheduled to ensure that a judge will get the right interpreter,” Khan told Al Jazeera.

The U.S. immigration court system has already delayed more than 1.3 million cases, according to Transracial Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

According to data obtained by TRAC, nearly 30,000 migrants who had pending cases in January 2021 speak at least 40 different languages.

“Although indigenous languages ​​and other rare languages ​​make up a small number of pending MPP cases – only 29,423 out of 337 – the need for language access poses unique challenges for both migrants and Immigration Courts,” according to the April 26 TRAC report.

It is difficult to estimate how many migrants with rare languages ​​are on the verge of entering or entering the immigration system.

Given the numbers of the past, speakers of indigenous languages ​​may be less than 1% of the total, but they may end up in a limbo of tens or hundreds of types.

“These cases will not reach us until December 2023. This means that we already have a delay, which is above the time required to find interpreters for most indigenous communities in an immigration process,” Khan said.

Raramuri is part of the indigenous community, waiting for cases to be heard while waiting outside Mexico City in Juarez. [Luis Chaparro/Al Jazeera]

Khan said there is a “level of frustration” among immigration judges because the issue is “creating massive efficiencies and delays.”

It is not the U.S. immigration courts that have to deal with indigenous language speakers waiting to handle cases, the U.S. criminal court system is increasingly finding.

Pablo, a 25-year-old Rarámuri from an indigenous tribe in northern Mexico, crossed the U.S. border carrying a sack of hemp as payment for smugglers.

He was arrested in January, along with a group of Mexican migrants carrying hemp. All the others were able to communicate in Spanish to contact the judge for punishment, Pablo’s case is still pending and he remains in jail.

“Many of the Raramuri who reach the border are still not being taken to court, mainly because they don’t know the language and find it difficult to find interpreters for them,” said Texas public defender Chris Carlin Pablo. dozen Raramuri.

Carlin said 10 years ago, when Raramuri indigenous migrants were carrying hemp sacks on the border, “the judge decided to return to Mexico only with a warning because they did not understand what was happening,” Carlin said. he said.

Former U.S. missionary Dale Taylor and a full-time interpreter for Raramuri said recent cases like Pablo are “worrying” and there are too many to deal with. He has been asked to help in 42 cases since January.

Taylor said Raramuri, who is interpreted in English in the U.S., is the only one who is formally trained. Although he is familiar with Pablo’s case, Taylor said there are 10 cases ahead of him.

Most interpretations of indigenous language in U.S. courts are done over the phone by nonprofits such as Lionbridge and SOS International. But while this has alleviated some of the delays in the cases, the judges say the remote system makes it difficult to assess the applicant.

“Each claim is heard individually according to the facts. I have to assess the credibility of what is in front of me, how can I do that if they don’t speak the language, ”Khan said.

Odilia Romero, an independent interpreter of Indigenous Zapotecs and founder of the Indigenous Communities in Leadership (CIELO) association, said many interpreters who support U.S. courts lack the ability to hear migrants in official hearings.

“Few interpreters in U.S. courts are not properly educated or trained to return for Indigenous immigrants. They are gardeners or local workers who migrated from the same communities, but that doesn’t mean they know how to make a proper translation for U.S. immigration court,” Romero said.

Even if asylum seekers like Claudia and Pablo end up in court after waiting for a translator, there is no guarantee that they will be able to report the asylum application clearly.

“This not only leaves indigenous immigrants at the end of immigration courts, but also violates a basic human right,” Romero said.

Claudia said at the shelter that returning to Guatemala is not an option.

“I’ll wait as long as I need to. I can’t go back to Guatemala, there’s a reason to leave, otherwise I would have stayed there, ”he said.