A recent RFKHR report showed a “systematic denial of language access” that prevented asylum seekers from receiving protections and violated detainee’s rights and blocked their access to medical and legal services at Winn Correctional Center. 

Now, advocates say that language access issues stretch beyond that one facility and across the state of Louisiana in this new piece from Verite News.

RFKHR Staff Attorney Sarah Decker said, “People are detained and trapped in these jails and don’t have access to any materials in their language, let alone interpretation services to help them actually complete the [asylum] application and they’re unrepresented.”

“We’re seeing people who are simply unable to complete that form and the immigration judges in this region will simply deny applications for relief on that basis,” Decker added.