Language, laws a challenge for indigenous migrants (fwd link)

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3/13/2009 2:33:00 PM

Language, laws a challenge for indigenous migrants

MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) - When immigration agents arrested 16 farmworkers in a
mass arrest of illegal immigrants early this year, legal advocates raced to
find interpreters for the men, who spoke only a language called Mixtec.

But by the time an interpreter was found, most of the men were on their way out
of the country after signing away their rights to contest deportation - a
procedure they might not have understood.

The deportations alarmed immigrant advocates in this agricultural city 60 miles
north of Seattle. It also raised questions about the deportation proceedings
for people who speak little Spanish or English.

"There is no way they knew what they were signing. No way," said Rev. Jo Beecher
of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Mount Vernon, one of the
advocates who tried to help the men.

Although federal courts have ruled that immigration proceedings must be
translated into the language of the detainee, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement has no interpreters in the area who speak Mixtec - a tonal language
with several dialects - Beecher said.

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