Recent reporting from Mother Jones brings a spotlight on the terrible situation of Deaf individuals caught up by ICE: "How Trump's Deportation Machine Deprives Deaf People of Their Humanity." Read the full story here.
CoSET is concerned with everyone caught up by the circumstances of their immigration status (or being stereotyped as an immigrant). Language rights belong to all Deaf people, regardless of the signed language: your native language or mother tongue matters for spoken languages, too.
Another issue that affects many people in detention are assumptions of literacy. Giving anyone messages in writing is not an effective communication accommodation. Giving a message is also one-half of communication — how can you also receive meaningful, informative and accurate responses and information if a person doesn't write?
Do you want to do something about this unfairness?
Advocacy is happening in many ways, for instance with educating the US Congress. In June a virtual briefing was provided on The Erosion of Disability Rights in ICE Detention. You can watch the video below or on YouTube with ASL↔English interpreting. Significant testimony is presented by Howard Rosenblum of Deaf Equality.
After watching the video, follow up with your elected Senators in Congress and your State Representatives to the US House to make sure they are aware and understand what to do. Learn about major concerns with ICE and AI from this bibliography with links to reporting on matters of lack of language access and surveillance.
Tangible resources for legal situations!
CoSET is pleased to offer permanent links to two accessible PDFs by Celena Ponce of Hands United (linked below).
Immigration Screening Questions For Lawyers Consulting to Deaf People is a guide for lawyers that outlines considerations relevant to all situations involving Deaf people who rely on a signed language for communication. This guide is customized in particular for the legal setting, the considerations can be applied to medical, educational, social services, mental health, and employment settings.
What to Tell Your Lawyer for Deaf Persons in Immigration Situations is a compilation of experiences to tell your lawyer. This guide can also help for hearing individuals with communication-related disabilities. Experiences of language deprivation, abuse, intolerance, mockery and other forms of dehumanization occur across the entire language spectrum, from spoken languages to signed languages.
Hands United, also known as Manos Unidas, has been on the frontlines of immigration and asylum hearings since 2024.
To date they have provided:
- legal assistance to 70 Deaf individuals and their families, spanning 7 signed languages
- legal education to 40 attorneys and their paralegal staff
- expertise for advocacy efforts by 30 non-profit organizations
- introductory signed language classes in 11 signed languages including American Sign Language, Pakistani Sign Language, Mexican Sign Language and Colombian Sign Language.
The Connection with CoSET and Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective AI for Interpreting (S.A.F.E. AIxAI)
CoSET has conceptualized a three-dimensional risk framework (see Part A of the AI Evaluation Toolkit), which elaborates on the many, varied aspects of Primary Communicator Profiles. Any Deaf person in detention or other circumstances is a primary communicator. They are "primary" because they are the authors of their own communication. We propose that in a legal sense, they are principal communicators.
As an attorney, you are also a primary communicator — accountable for the clarity of your understanding of the client as well as for ensuring that your client comprehends the ramifications of the law.
The checklists in the Toolkit Part A apply to vendors, institutions, businesses, and any organization considering the use of AI as a communication accommodation. If your court system or legal practice is even thinking about the use of AI for this regulated sector, please learn the full range of risk factors and their respective dimensions so that you can remain in compliance with language access law.