ATA Newsbriefs

Meenu Batra, a longtime Texas court interpreter being held in a federal detention facility after being detained by federal immigration officers, called the experience “degrading.”

Batra, who has lived in the U.S. for about 35 years and has a “withholding of removal” order that prevents her from being deported to her home country of India due to fear of persecution, was detained by authorities on March 17 at Valley International Airport while on her way to Milwaukee for a work trip. She is currently being held at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville, Texas

Batra, a single mother of four adult U.S. citizens, has been a certified court interpreter for more than 20 years. Her language skills in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu have led her to travel frequently, said her attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia.

According to Batra’s sworn affidavit, she was questioned at the TSA checkpoint, where an ICE officer stopped her and asked, “Do you know that you are here illegally?” to which she responded, “No.” Batra said she told the officer she had been granted withholding of removal and had a valid work authorization, to which he responded, “That doesn’t mean you can be here forever.” Batra was then handcuffed and put into an unmarked white SUV.

Batra said she was taken to an ICE field office she recognized as the one where she had previously gone to renew her work authorization. Officers then made her pose for a photo with two officers for “social media,” which she said made her feel “humiliated and treated like a criminal.”

Batra described her arrest as a “sinking feeling,” and said her detainment felt like “the longest month of her life.”

According to her attorney, Batra was born in India and fled to the U.S. when she was a teenager, after her parents were killed during the state-sponsored anti-Sikh pogroms of the 1980s. She applied for asylum when she arrived. In 2000, an immigration judge in New Jersey granted her withholding of removal status, which is granted to individuals who can prove it’s more likely than not that they will face persecution if they are returned to their home country.

According to the American Immigration Council and National Immigrant Justice Center, a person who is granted withholding of removal is “protected from being returned to his or her home country and receives the right to remain in the United States and work legally.” However, that person “cannot petition to bring family members to the United States and does not gain a path to citizenship.”

According to Batra’s habeas corpus petition, “at no point during the past twenty-five years did ICE attempt to remove Ms. Batra, ask her to help obtain travel documents, or tell her that removal to India or any other country was being actively pursued. She was never required to report to ICE on a regular basis. When she visited ICE offices, it was only for administrative matters related to work authorization.”

The Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss Batra’s habeas corpus petition, arguing that Batra has been “lawfully detained” and subject to a “final order of removal.” The attorneys in the filing do not mention if the government intends to deport Batra to a third country — countries other than her own that are willing to accept her.

Texas Representative Joaquin Castro has criticized Batra’s detention, writing on X, “Meenu Batra is the only Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu court interpreter in Texas. She had spent most of her life in Texas, working and raising her kids. ICE detained her despite having humanitarian protection. Trump’s mass deportation campaign isn’t going after the worst of the worst. It’s targeting contributing members of our communities and breaking apart families.”

ABC News (4/24/26) By Juhi Doshi

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The U.S. Department of Education plans to dissolve the office that supports the country’s five million English learners.

The move comes as the Trump administration has called to dismantle the Department of Education and stop funding English language acquisition programs in the federal budget. The country’s English learner student population includes U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents as well as authorized and undocumented immigrant children.

The Office of English Language Acquisition was already hit hard by early rounds of layoffs. Last August, the Department of Education rescinded guidance that many states and school districts rely on to protect the rights of immigrant students.

Department of Education officials said dissolving the Office of English Language Acquisition and assigning its work to offices doing related work would be better for English learners. In an emailed statement, Assistant Education Secretary Kirsten Baesler said the changes would align work across teams within the Department of Education, reduce administrative burden, and “empower states to design integrated supports.”

“English learners should never be treated as a siloed program, set aside as an afterthought,” Baesler said. “When English language acquisition is embedded across core priorities like literacy, academic content, educator preparation, and accountability, it receives the seriousness and sustained focus it deserves.”

The Department of Education informed Congress of the changes in a February letter. According to the letter, distribution of federal Title III money that helps states educate English learners will be handled by the same office that distributes other large federal programs.

Training programs for teachers who work with English learners will move to the Office of Effective Educator Development Programs, the letter said. Language programs for Native American and Alaska Native children will move to the Office of Indian Education.

Chalkbeat (4/15/26) By Erica Meltzer

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Northern Ireland will become the first part of the U.K. to provide free sign language classes to all Deaf children and their families through a new sign language law being passed this month.

The Sign Language Bill, first introduced in the Northern Ireland Assembly by Democratic Unionist Party Communities Minister Gordon Lyons in 2025, will require the Department for Communities to provide free classes to Deaf people under the age of 25 and their families, guardians, and caregivers.

The legislation will also give official and equal recognition of British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language as languages of Northern Ireland and promote the use and understanding of sign languages. The Department for Communities estimates that at least 5,000 people in Northern Ireland use either British Sign Language or Irish Sign Language as their preferred way to communicate.

“This landmark new law will send a clear signal that Deaf people and sign language users are valued members of our society,” Lyons said.

Anthony Sinclair, a Belfast-based sports coach who is profoundly Deaf, said he is relieved after he and other supporters “had to fight for such a long time” for the law. “We’re starting to see systemic change where we’re seen as equal, and we really do look forward to feeling that respect for our language, our culture, and our values.”

Sinclair’s wife, Kristina, a registered interpreter, described the new law as a “brilliant first step” toward providing more opportunities for the Deaf community. “As good as a course is, when you learn a living language with people who use it and own it, creating those opportunities will make a massive difference for improving the quality of interpreters here,” she said.

John Carberry, who is Deaf, has spent the past 40 years working to promote sign language in Northern Ireland. “For so long, the lives of Deaf people and their language have been overlooked. Now our language is being lifted up. We’re thankful to our government for their support.”

BBC (4/27/26) By Jayne McCormack

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In a win for local language access efforts in the U.S., Washington State passed SHB 2475, a bill aimed at standardizing language access guidelines across all state agencies.

SHB 2475, whose full title is “An act relating to providing language accessible public programs, activities, and services conducted, operated, or administered by state agencies,” was signed into law at the end of March. It will officially take effect on June 11, 2026.

Originally sponsored by Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self and 17 others in the House of Representatives, the bill moved quickly through both houses of the Washington State legislature during a short 60-day legislative session that began January 12. The bill passed the House on February 16 and the Senate on March 5 before being signed into law by Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson on March 23.

While SHB 2475 will not create new language access requirements or establish new legally protected classes, it does aim to eliminate inconsistencies in language access delivery across state agencies.

The Office of Equity will have until December 2027 to create uniform language access guidelines for all state agencies covering spoken, signed, written, and digital communications delivered via in-person, remote, and pre-recorded modalities.

In collaboration with “interested parties,” the Office of Equity will also draft a proposal for addressing the state’s shortage of qualified interpreters and translators, including sign language interpreters and interpreters and translators working with “languages of lesser diffusion.”

State agencies will have until June 2028 to report on how they will implement the new guidelines.

In a March 27 newsletter, Representative Ortiz-Self encapsulated the key value of SHB 2475, saying, “this legislation helps ensure state agencies provide programs, services, and information in ways that are accessible to people in their primary language. By improving language access, the bill helps families better navigate government services and ensures more Washingtonians can fully participate in their communities.”

Slator (4/2/26) By Brandon Loch

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