A deaf immigrant detained by ice for 4 months without a translator

From Wendy FryCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

A deaf and non -infidel Mongolian man has spent more than four months at the immigrant detention center in Southern California without the opportunity to communicate with anyone who understands Mongolian, according to his civil rights lawyer.

“In principle, he was in solitude because he did not really have a single person to speak to him in Mongolian language Cruz’s joyDirector of Judicial Disputes for the Legal Center for the Rights of People with Disabilities.

The US judge in South California Dana Sabrrow has ordered employees at the Center for Detention of Out Mesa to provide him with a Mongolian translator in the signs.

The judge also directed immigration authorities to repeat two assessments that could influence his asylum request. One would examine his mental health and the other would evaluate whether he had a reliable fear of his safety if he returned to his country.

“How can he participate meaningfully if he does not know what is said and cannot communicate?” Sakra asked a federal lawyer during a hearing on Wednesday.

US lawyer’s assistant Erin Dimbleby said many people do not fully understand court proceedings in the immigration court.

The man’s family asked Calmatters to identify him by the name avirmed because of their fear that he could be injured by the Mongolian government if he was returned to his homeland.

AvirMed holding up as a refuge search emphasizes the sharp change in border policies From the Biden administration to Trump’s.

According to Biden, asylum seekers, who are not threats to public safety, have often been released to a bond rather than being detained until their cases are moved through the immigration court. Trump’s administration took a A much tougher approach With the retention numbers, reaching record maximums – a tactic that his supporters say he works. As President Donald Trump took office, Unauthorized border crossings have fallen to historically low levelsS

But the presentation of Avirmed from Legal Center for Disability Rights It also shows how some immigrant defenders change tactics in response to the immigration repression of the Trump administration. In this case, they benefit from federal laws for people with disabilities who prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities from any federal program, including the immigration court system.

The Trump administration recognizes its “own power and can be very dangerous unless someone checks it the way the judge does,” said Sylvia Torres-Guillen, president and executive director of the organization.

Key interviews with ice without translators

Avirmed left Mongolia earlier this year and entered Usin February, looking for asylum from persecution for his damage. In 2020, an attack in Mongolia left him a traumatic brain trauma that causes seizures and memory loss. He was attacked because of his damage, according to court records. His family refused to say how he got to the United States

A legal appeal filed on his behalf says that Avirmed has given a letter to the border officers written in Mongolian and translated into English, notifying them of his disability and his intention to seek asylum. Customs and border protection agents refused to read or accept the letter, his lawyers say in the complaint against the Ministry of Homeland Security.

The agents transferred it to immigration and the application of customs, where it was placed in detention at the Otay Mesa detention center, operated by Corecivic, where it was still holding.

The agents interviewed him without a lawyer or translator in sign language and tried to use Google Translate to ask him if he was afraid to return to Mongolia, according to the complaint. They understood him badly, identifying his sponsor as a daughter named Virginia Washington when he did not have a daughter, according to the trial. His sponsor is his sister, who lives in Virginia.

Avirmed also evaluated mental health without any interpretation that the judge ordered Ice to repeat, saying that “he has the right to participate where he understands and can respond and communicate, and to be part of the process, not an observer.”

California employees have been Critical of mental health resources in ice retention centers. By law, they have access to check federal immigration establishments. An April report From the office of the California General Prosecutor, he documented what she described as severely inadequate mental health services in ice facilities.

“No facilities consistently offer adequate psychotherapeutic services for mental health conditions, which are most commonly observed in the population of detainees in California,” the report said, calling the centers of the city and San Diego, for which California employees have been found to have free work.

Companies operating the detention centers have challenged the prosecutor’s findings, one calling the report an example of a “politicized campaign” to intervene in deportation efforts.

“Like Greek for me”

Avirmed has no criminal record. According to ICE data, which show that less than 10% or 125 of the 1350 people who are currently detained in Otay Mesa have been convicted of a crime or crime.

Judge Sabraw agreed with de la Cruz and other Avirmead’s lawyers that a 48-year-old man is probably unable to understand what is happening during earlier proceedings, so they must be repeated with a translator and in a language he understands.

“He’s right, right? Can he be able to fully participate in some significant procedure?” Sabraw Dimbbi asked.

“MSL (Mongolian signs) is not a super common language,” Dimbbi argues at one point.

For the future production, the Federal Government suggested that Avirmed A “be providedRelay team“This would allow him to testify through a certified deaf translator. Then the translator will translate the American language testimony to the sign language and then ASL will be translated into spoken English.

“According to this proposal for the relays, everyone would understand, with the exception of G -n Avirmead,” Sabra said.

The judge stated that the government’s plan did not allow Avirmed to participate in court proceedings, since it did not understand English or ASL.

“It’s like telling me Greek,” Sabraw said.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.