Can the government take a womans baby because the mother doesn speak English?
According to a recent TIME Magazine story, that surprising question is the latest in the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration. The issue stems from a case being heard in a Mississippi courthouse, where an undocumented woman from impoverished rural Mexico — who speaks only an obscure indigenous language — fights to regain custody of her infant daughter after the Department of Human Services (DHS) ruled she was an unfit mother in part because her lack of English. Despite DHS statements to the contrary, language seems a central issue in this case, along with a couple of other recent cases from Tennessee and California. It is suspected that a lack of interpreters is a key factor. With the increasing number of limited-English speakers in the U.S., courts and government agencies are struggling meet the language needs of investigations and proceedings. It is often impossible to have staff on board to meet these needs, and thus many institutions rely on over-the-phone or video inte
