ABA Journal News

March 22, 2019

Migrants often speak languages that are little known in the U.S. (except maybe in New York City): k-iche from Central America, urdu from Pakistan, Creole from Haiti. American immigration judges have a hard time finding enough interpreters to show up in courtrooms.

Now the Justice Department has ordered the judges to use more translators who work over the phone because of what the agency says are budget problems. But judges and lawyers say the quality of the telephone translations suffers and may be leading to unfair deportation trials.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/immigration-courts-getting-lost-in-translation