Deaf Mongolian asylum seeker granted sign language interpreter for ICE hearings

SAN DIEGO (CN) — The federal government must provide a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter to a deaf immigrant who’s been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since February so he can meaningfully communicate with his lawyer and understand and participate in his court hearings.

“It’s really common sense that a person has a right to communicate,” said U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, a George W. Bush appointee, on Wednesday after giving his bench ruling.

Bayartulga Avirmed, who fled Mongolia and entered the U.S. in February, only understands and can communicate in Mongolian Sign Language. During his initial deportation hearings, including a mental health evaluation, he claims the government provided him with an American Sign Language interpreter, who couldn’t understand or interpret his Mongolian Sign Language.

Sabraw not only granted Avirmed’s request for a Mongolian Sign Language translator but ordered the government to redo his mental health and other hearings he already did with the American Sign Language translator so he could participate in the proceedings and communicate with his attorney and the court.

He has a right to be involved in his own legal proceedings and evaluations “and not a bystander who learns afterward through his sister what happened,” Sabraw said.

According to Avirmed in his May complaint, he faced discrimination and physical attacks in his native Mongolia because he’s deaf and mute. In 2020, he was beaten so severely he suffered a traumatic brain injury that affected his memory and vision and resulted in fainting spells, confusion and seizures.

In February, Avirmed entered the U.S. and turned himself over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents with a letter, in English, saying he wanted to apply for asylum in the country and detailing his disability. He claims the federal agents refused to read the letter. Avirmed was then sent to a immigration detention center on the U.S.-Mexico border run by CoreCivic, a private for-profit company.

Avirmed was then put through expedited removal proceedings, a kind of fast-track deportation process initiated by one of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders during his second term, where migrants can be deported before seeing an immigration judge.

In his suit, Avirmed claims that’s a violation of a federal law called the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires federal agencies to provide accommodations to people with disabilities.

Avirmed’s sister, who also serves as his sponsor, has been interpreting for her brother, but in his complaint, Avirmed says she’s not sufficiently proficient in MSL enough to provide adequate translation. She has given ICE contact information for MSL interpreters, but the government has yet to arrange an interpreter, or even reach out to one, Avirmed claims.

“A Mongolian Sign Language interpreter is not a unicorn,” said Avirmed’s attorney, Alegria Guadalupe De La Cruz of the Disability Rights Legal Center.

Avirmed and his attorneys are in contact with an interpreter now who lives in Mongolia, she said. They’re also in contact with other interpreters, but the federal government has yet to reach out to any of them, she added.

While the government is working to find an interpreter, they proposed to set up a system where a Certified Deaf Interpreter, who doesn’t understand MSL, would try to intuit what Avirmed was trying to communicate at his future hearings. The certified interpreter would then use American Sign Language to communicate with a ASL interpreter, who would then translate to the court in the English language.

The certified interpreter has a way of understanding through other methods besides directly translating signs, like through a person’s “gesturing,” said Lisa Hemann, the government’s attorney.

“But that’s like speaking Greek to me. It doesn’t make any sense,” Sabraw said.

That system, Sabraw added, only allows the certified interpreter to attempt to translate proceedings one way, from Avirmed to the court, and doesn’t provide any way from Avirmed to understand what’s going on in the preceding, Sabraw added.

“Contracting is a long process,” Hermman said about the delay in getting in contact with a MSL interpreter.

Sabraw also granted Avirmed’s request to communicate with his attorney over video chat for three hours instead of CoreCivic’s maximum one hour policy, since translating from Mongolian Sign Language to English takes a substantial amount of time.

While Avirmed is being evaluated and going through his proceedings, the government won’t deport him, Hermann said.

Avirmed is no longer in expedited removal proceedings after he won a temporary restraining order against the government, De La Cruz said.

Sabraw also cancelled Avirmed’s upcoming competency hearing until the government can provide him with an MSL interpreter.

Avirmed argued that along with his attorney and an MSL interpreter, his sister should also attend all of his hearings since she could explain the contours of his disability to the court. Sabraw said he’ll consider whether he has a legal right and necessity for her to be at his future hearings.