April 13, 2023
This week, several Ayudantes submitted testimony to the Council of the District of Columbia to showcase the critical impact of funding provided to the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants (OVSJG), including the Access to Justice Initiative. A recording of Ayuda’s oral testimony at the April 13 agency budget oversight hearing, along with transcripts and full copies of Ayuda’s written testimony are available below. Click to jump to testimony:
- Video Recording of Oral Testimonies Delivered April 13, 2023
- Written Testimony: Paula Fitzgerald, Executive Director
- Written Testimony: David Steib, Language Access Director
- Transcript of Oral Testimony: Catherine Chen, Project End and Pro Bono Staff Attorney
Video Recording of Oral Testimonies Delivered April 13, 2023
Written Testimony As Filed – Paula Fitzgerald, Executive Director
Dear Chairperson Mendelson, Judiciary Committee Chair Pinto, and Members of the D.C. Council:
I am writing on behalf of Ayuda regarding the importance of Access to Justice Initiative support for Ayuda’s services. Ayuda’s mission is to advocate for low-income immigrants through direct legal, social, and language services; training; and outreach in the Washington DC metropolitan area. We envision a community where all immigrants succeed and thrive in the United States.
Community Legal Interpreter Bank
With funding from the Access to Justice Initiative, Ayuda’s Community Legal Interpreter Bank provides free, professional interpretation and document translation services to approximately 40 nonprofits that provide civil legal services to D.C. residents. The language access services provided by this project have proven to be essential for our partnered nonprofit organizations in their serving limited English proficient/non-English proficient (LEP) and Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (Deaf) individuals.
Our project helps ensure that DC residents are not deprived of vital services because of the languages that they use to communicate. Since the founding of the Access to Justice Initiative, our city has made great improvements in meeting the legal needs of low-income residents; more and more people are being helped. The only way to ensure that the expansion of services is equitable is to grow the Community Legal Interpreter Bank proportionately, so that LEP and Deaf clients are not left out.
In recent years, increased funding from the Access to Justice Initiative has been essential in allowing our program to try to keep pace with demands, even as new legal services hotlines have become available, new attorneys have been hired, new pro bono partnerships with law firms have been forged, and new organizations have emerged. Increased funding has also allowed us to offer interpreter trainings, increasing the pool of trained professionals who can work with lawyers and their clients in an out-of-court setting. However, even with increased funding, our project is underfunded. Often, we must decline to fill requests for assistance because of a lack of funding.
The DC Code establishes that one of the purposes of the Access to Justice Initiative is to provide a shared legal interpreter bank, an innovative and essential project. As a result of the project, legal service providers can turn to a shared resource to meet all of their language access needs. They should be able to rely on that service. When the Bank is underfunded, requests go unfilled and legal services clients suffer. Legal services nonprofits are faced with untenable options, such as using a client’s family member as an interpreter (in violation of ethical and professional standards) or using a volunteer interpreter (who may be untrained and do damage to the client’s case). The Access to Justice Initiative has been imperative for our program as we work in service of the city’s pursuit of language justice, and any decrease in the budget would do great harm to D.C. legal service providers and their LEP and Deaf clients.
Project END: Protecting Immigrants from Consumer Fraud
Project END combats and addresses fraud uniquely harmful to low-income immigrants, such as immigration legal services scam and bail bond schemes. We combat fraud by providing consumer education and KYRs, and we address it through civil and criminal restitution efforts and rehabilitative immigration work.
Project END seeks to prevent and address consumer fraud affecting immigrants through four methods: 1) Direct representation of victims: To address consumer fraud in the District, staff represent and advocate for clients by liaising with law enforcement; assisting with filing complaints; and applying for forms of immigration relief. 2) Community education and technical trainings: Project END distributes videos and memes via social media and to a list of area partners, as well as provides Know Your Rights presentations and trainings. In 2022, Project END collaborated with several DCarea non-profits to provide virtual KYRs. 3) Pro bono screenings: To address the confusion around changes in immigration law and the high need for consults, pro bono attorneys provide individual immigration consultations under Ayuda’s mentorship. Pro Bono attorneys screen for immigration legal services fraud and Project END follows up with potential clients for in-house legal representation. 4) Client-centered advocacy: Project END liaises with DC and Federal agencies to advocate for policies that assist victims.
In 2015, Project END began representing Martin*, a long-time Ward 1 resident and noncitizen. He had traveled to his home county but accidently overstayed his travel authorization period and was unable to return to the U.S. His daughter found a nonattorney, or notario, operating in the District, who held himself out as qualified to provide immigration legal services.
This notario submitted an application to immigration, ostensibly to help Martin return to the US. However, this application submitted was an inappropriate application for Martin. Unknowing, Martin waited anxiously for this application to be approved, only to discover after months that they’d been misled by the notario.
This prolonged Martin’s separation from his family and caused him significant lost wages. He was able to return with the help of a qualified attorney, and Ayuda helped him submit a complaint with the DC Office of the Attorney General against the notario, resulting in consumer protection action and settlement. Under the settlement, the notario agreed to stop providing immigration services, preventing future victimization.
Further, Martin recently received a large restitution payment, representing his months of lost wages. This work was only possible due to the support of the DC Bar Foundation’s Access to Justice funding, a primary source of funding for Project END. While Martin was unavailable to provide testimony personally, he is very grateful for Ayuda and states its services are critical to the immigrant community in DC. He would not have been able to file the complaint without Project END’s advocacy.
In 2023, we anticipate continued confusion over changes in immigration law and policy, likely resulting in increased consumer fraud by unscrupulous non attorneys, government imposters, as well as fraud against immigrants seeking a driver’s license, immigration bail bonds, English language courses, or other related services. Project END is particularly concerned about the recently-arrived migrants to the District, who are uniquely vulnerable to fraud. Project END has begun providing legal orientations to recently-arrived migrants, but needs ongoing support in order to reach this population through 2023 and beyond.
Recently Arrived Immigrants Program
The Access to Justice Initiative also funds our Recently Arrived Immigrants Program, which provides comprehensive legal services, including consultations, brief services, and extended representation to recently arrived immigrants, as well as legal education events and training to local service providers. Ayuda anticipates that the number of newly arriving immigrants will continue growing as the U.S. ends of the use of Title 42 at the border and as the busing programs implemented by border states persist.
Newly arrived immigrants face challenges accessing work permits because of their immigration status and lack the established community networks of other immigrants with more time living in the area. As such, many are living in economically precarious conditions, which leaves them vulnerable to food instability, homelessness, and crime victimization. The need for expert legal counsel for newly arriving migrants continues to increase, outpacing our capacity.
Ayuda remains committed to helping to meet increased demand; we urge the Council to support this essential work by increasing funding for the Access to Justice Initiative. If we can provide additional information about the importance of Access to Justice Initiative support for Ayuda’s services for DC residents, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 202-243-7318.
Sincerely,
Paula Fitzgerald
Executive Director, Ayuda
*Name changed to protect our client’s privacy.
Written Testimony As Filed – David Steib, Language Access Director
Ayuda appreciates the opportunity to submit testimony to the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety regarding the vital role that the Access to Justice Initiative plays in ensuring that the District of Columbia has an effective safety net for all its residents. Today I will speak about the Community Legal Interpreter Bank, a project run by Ayuda that results in equal access to legal services for District residents who are limited English proficient or Deaf/Hard of Hearing.
Ayuda is a nonprofit organization that helps immigrants from across the world overcome obstacles in order to succeed and thrive in the United States. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 immigrants in the DC Metro area, empowering immigrants to access justice and transform their lives. Our services include legal representation, therapy, case management, advocacy, and language access.
When the DC Council passed legislation creating the Access to Justice Initiative, the Council included a requirement that some of the Initiative’s funding should be used for a shared legal interpreter bank. For the last sixteen years, the Language Access Program at Ayuda has been home to that bank, which is called the Community Legal Interpreter Bank (Bank).
The Bank is a unique national model that has been extremely effective in creating equitable access to civil legal services for limited English proficient and Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals. The Bank’s success can be attributed to the breadth of services that it offers, the efficiency of having a shared resource for dozens of legal service providers, and the degree to which it caters specifically to the needs of legal service providers and their clients. In a city as diverse as the District of Columbia, the populace cannot be equitably served without investing energy, expertise, and financial resources in language access.
Organizations across the country contact Ayuda on a regular basis looking to replicate our model in their cities. Recently, the New York City Council awarded a five-million dollar grant to a Language Access Collaborative to launch a shared legal interpreter bank in their city, modeled after our bank. Here in DC, we worked with the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants to replicate the Bank in the victim services setting. Our Victim Services Interpreter Bank trains interpreters to be trauma-informed and victim-centered. Ayuda has submitted separate testimony about that bank for victim services and the work that the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants is doing to support language access for victims of crime.
According to census data, more than 34,000 individuals in the District over the age of 4 years old are limited-English proficient (LEP) or non-English proficient (NEP). This group constitutes close to 6 percent of the city’s population.[1] Since 2010, the number of LEP/NEP residents of DC has increased by more than 10,000 individuals.[2] Among these residents of DC, the top four languages spoken are Spanish, Amharic, French, and Chinese.[3] In addition, our city is home to a large concentration of Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals, many of whom use sign language to communicate. More than 14,000 people in the District have a hearing difficulty.[4]
Ayuda’s Community Legal Interpreter Bank trains professional interpreters to work with lawyers and their clients in an out of court setting. We train interpreters using a curriculum that we helped to develop, the Language of Justice. Interpreters learn how to maintain confidentiality, guard the attorney-client privilege, and avoid the unauthorized practice of law. The Bank then pays these professional, specially trained interpreters to go where they are needed, as requested by the more than 40 civil legal services providers in DC that use the Bank. Interpreters can meet with service providers and their clients in-person, over the phone, or over video.
When one of our specially trained interpreters is not available, legal service providers may use on-demand telephonic interpretation through the Bank’s contracted third-party service. Written translation services are also available, allowing providers to create outreach materials in various languages and to ensure that written communication with a particular client is in the appropriate language. The Bank’s staff are experts in language access and provide training and technical assistance to the city’s civil legal service providers. The benefits of the Bank are free because of grant funding, including an award from the Access to Justice Initiative, administered by the DC Bar Foundation.
This project reaches some of DC’s neediest residents by removing common obstacles that often prevent individuals from getting the help that they need. A limited English proficient or Deaf/Hard of Hearing DC resident might suffer without accessing available legal services for many reasons, including, but not limited to, fear of reprisal from an abuser or perpetrator, lack of information regarding the assistance that is available, shame or embarrassment, mistrust of lawyers or law enforcement (sometimes founded on past interactions in other countries), and lack of knowledge regarding legal rights. When a person cannot communicate in English, all of the obstacles just mentioned are compounded. Such linguistically isolated individuals are extremely difficult to reach.
Ayuda’s interpreter bank breaks down the language barrier that stands in the way of accessing help for limited-English proficient and Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals. Each time a legal client receives culturally appropriate services in his or her language, faith in the system is restored. That client will relay to members of his or her community that help is available, even for those who cannot speak English. The success of the Community Legal Interpreter Bank has demonstrated the importance of ensuring that legal services are accessible to all residents, regardless of the languages that they use to communicate.
The Community Legal Interpreter Bank has grown to serve 41 different organizations that provide civil legal services to DC residents. There are 99 interpreters who contract with the Bank, working in 20 different languages, including Spanish, Amharic, French, Chinese, and American Sign Language. Each interpreter has completed our multi-day Language of Justice training created especially for this project. In fiscal year 2022, we were able to offer the Language of Justice and train 18 interpreters who work in a variety of spoken languages, including Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Thai, Russian, Portuguese, and Urdu. In fiscal year 2023, we will offer the Language of Justice in American Sign Language for hearing and Deaf sign language interpreters.
During the last fiscal year, the Bank used Access to Justice Initiative funding to provide these specially trained interpreters on more than 330 occasions, to provide on-demand telephonic interpretation through LanguageLine in more than 9,000 instances, and to arrange for the translation of more than 460 documents. The majority of requests were for assistance with speakers of Spanish, Amharic, and French. We served clients living throughout the city, in all 8 wards. The Bank helped service providers reach a variety of clients in innumerable ways. We provided interpretation for at least 25 tenant association or housing coop meetings in Spanish, Amharic, Mandarin, and Cantonese. The Bank provided simultaneous interpretation over Zoom for three Know Your Rights presentations (in Spanish, French, and Amharic).We also provided interpretation for several legal clinics, including the DC Bar Pro Bono Center’s Immigration Legal Clinic at Carlos Rosario (in Spanish, Amharic, and Mandarin). The Bank translated Know Your Rights materials on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act into American Sign Language (using video). In addition, we assisted countless attorneys in conducting intake, holding client meetings, and preparing their clients for court and administrative hearings.
The pandemic has had a profound impact on the Bank. Providing language access is more complicated than ever. The Bank now trains legal services staff on complicated technological solutions to having remote meetings in which separate languages will be spoken on different audio channels. We also now have a policy that in-person assignments are only offered to interpreters who are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. These adjustments require more staff time. Additionally, after 16 years of working with the legal services community to ensure equity for limited English proficient and Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals, the demand for language access continues to grow. The Bank has normalized serving clients in languages other than English. There is also a larger diversity of languages represented in the requests for assistance received by the Bank. The Bank must continue offering the Language of Justice, training more interpreters who may then be invited to accept assignments from the Bank, in order to ensure the best possible fulfillment rates. In addition, we would like to provide continuing education trainings for the interpreters with whom we contract who already took the Language of Justice. Finally, we aim to also provide entry level training on interpretation for bilingual individuals who are looking to enter the profession of interpretation.
New funding for the Access to Justice Initiative in FY22 and FY23 has allowed the Bank to more fully realize it’s mission and purpose. The 41 different organizations served by the Bank are receiving excellent technical assistance, the Bank is providing essential training to more interpreters, and the Bank is less often in the position of having to turn away requests due to lack of funding. To avoid backsliding, the new funding must continue. The need for language access in legal services has never been greater and will continue to grow. We must build on our progress to avoid abandoning linguistically isolated communities in need of legal services.
The Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants and the DC Bar Foundation, as the grantors for the Access to Justice Initiative, play a vital role in ensuring equal access to justice for all DC residents. The work of the Community Legal Interpreter Bank helps to ensure that outreach by legal services organizations in DC is conducted in various languages, that when limited English proficient and Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals do seek help they are met in their languages, and that our city’s resources devoted to equal justice are open to everyone. A 60% cut to the Access to Justice Initiative, as proposed by the Mayor’s budget, will have catastrophic consequences for the thousands of DC residents who rely on the program for legal help. By eliminating access to critically needed legal services, this cut will put the safety, health, housing, and economic stability of some of the District’s most vulnerable populations at risk.
We ask that the FY24 budget fully support the critical role that the Access to Justice Initiative plays in strengthening the city’s safety net. FY24 funding of $31.689M would provide $20.339M for a wide range of civil legal services (including $3M for eviction diversion and $1M for a coordinated referral system to seek help); $11M for eviction-related legal services; and $350,000 for loan repayment assistance to DC legal services attorneys.
[1] https://data.census.gov/table?q=ACSDP1Y2016.DP02&g=0400000US11&tid=ACSDP5Y2021.DP02
[2]https://data.census.gov/table?q=Selected+Social&t=Language+Spoken+at+Home&g=1600000US1150000&tid=ACSDP5Y2021.DP02
[3] https://data.census.gov/table?q=Language&g=0400000US11&tid=ACSDT5Y2021.B16001
[4] https://data.census.gov/table?q=disability&g=0400000US11&tid=ACSST1Y2021.S1810
Oral Testimony Transcript – David Steib, Language Access Director
“Thank you, Chair Pinto. My name is David Steib, and I am the language access director at Ayuda. I am here today to sound the alarm about the proposed 60% cut to the Access to Justice Initiative. Such a cut will have catastrophic consequences for the thousands of DC residents who rely on the program for legal help, many of whom belong to some of the District’s most vulnerable populations.
My organization runs the Community Legal Interpreter Bank, which the DC Council conceived of in 2007 as an integral part of the Access to Justice Initiative. The Council’s vision ensures that DC residents who communicate in languages other than English are not shut out from the essential legal services that they need. We use initiative funding to provide professional interpretation and document translation services to 41 civil legal service provider organizations in DC. Since 2007, the Community Legal Interpreter Bank has become a national model. After many years of work, the New York City Council has just appropriated $5M for their city to replicate DC’s shared legal interpreter bank.
A 60% cut to the Access to Justice Initiative could gut this national model. What would our city look like with an anemic Community Legal Interpreter Bank? Landlords would prey on limited English proficient and Deaf tenants, knowing that legal services are difficult for them to access. With impunity, landlords would fail to fix housing code violations and evict tenants without due process. Perpetrators of domestic violence would also take advantage of unabated language barriers to isolate their victims from safety. These are just a few examples.
Without the Bank, there would be a void in understanding and implementing language access best practices. Clients would be more likely to find themselves in the situation of asking their young child to interpret the details of their abuse, of not sharing information with their lawyer because an untrusted friend or family member is serving as the interpreter, of being turned away because of language barriers, or of having their legal case jeopardized by the mistakes of an unqualified interpreter.
If these things happened, it would not be the fault of the legal services community. Language access is complicated and expensive. The DC Council decided to centralize the provision of language access for legal services to be more efficient. Ayuda employs full-time language access experts so that 40 other legal services providers do not have to. Ayuda vets, trains, contracts with, schedules, and pays interpreters, allowing other civil legal service providers to focus on providing legal services. Ayuda has created an online interpreter scheduling system that can be shared by the entire legal services community. The DC Council created a model that works beautifully. We ask that you not dismantle what you have created.
We cannot, as a city, provide the protections of the law only to English-speakers. According to census data, more than 34,000 individuals in the District, nearly 6% of residents, are limited-English proficient. In addition, DC is home to more than 14,000 people who have a hearing difficulty, many of whom use sign language to communicate.
During the last fiscal year, the Bank provided specially trained interpreters on more than 330 occasions, provided on-demand telephonic interpretation in more than 9,000 instances, and arranged for the translation of more than 460 documents. The specially trained interpreters have taken the Language of Justice, a training in which they learn to work with lawyers and their clients in an out of court setting. The majority of services were in Spanish, Amharic, and French. We served clients in all 8 wards.
New funding for the Access to Justice Initiative in the last two years has allowed the Bank to more fully realize it’s purpose. The need for language access in legal services has never been greater and will continue to grow. We must build on our progress to avoid abandoning linguistically isolated communities in need of legal services.
Rather than passing a budget that cuts the Access to Justice Initiative by 60%, we are asking the Council to fund the Access to Justice Initiative at $31.689M for FY24.
DC is a model city when it comes to language access, which is increasingly seen as a human right. Gutting our unique and nationally recognized Community Legal Interpreter Bank would be inhumane, inefficient, and disreputable.”
Oral Testimony Transcript – Catherine Chen, Project END and Pro Bono Staff Attorney
“Good afternoon, my name is Catherine Chen and I am a staff attorney at Ayuda (she/hers pronouns). I will be testifying on behalf of Ayuda’s additional OVSJG-funded programs: Project END and our Recently Arrived Immigrants Program.
Project END combats fraud uniquely harmful to low-income immigrants, such as immigration legal services scam and bail bond schemes. We prevent fraud by providing consumer education and Know Your Rights presentations, and we address it through civil and criminal restitution efforts and rehabilitative immigration work. Project END seeks to prevent and address consumer fraud affecting immigrants through four methods: Direct representation of victims, community education and technical trainings, screenings during pro bono consultations, and client-centered advocacy while liaising with DC and Federal agencies.
In just one example of a client’s story, in 2015, Project END began representing Martin (whose name has been changed for privacy reasons). Martin is a long-time Ward 1 resident and non-citizen. He had traveled to his home county but accidentally overstayed his travel authorization period and was unable to return to the U.S. His daughter found a non-attorney, or notario, operating in the District, who presented himself as qualified to provide immigration legal services. Unknowing, Martin waited anxiously for the application the notario submitted on his behalf to return to the U.S to be approved, only to discover after months that he had been misled by the notario. This prolonged Martin’s separation from his family and caused him significant lost wages. He was able to return with the help of a qualified attorney, and Ayuda helped him submit a complaint with the DC Office of the Attorney General, resulting in consumer protection action and settlement. Under the settlement, the notario agreed to stop providing immigration services, preventing future victimization. Further, Martin recently received a large restitution payment, representing his months of lost wages. This work was only possible due to the support of the DC Bar Foundation’s Access to Justice funding, a primary source of funding for Project END. While Martin was unavailable to provide testimony personally, he is very grateful for Ayuda and states its services are critical to the immigrant community in DC.
In 2023, we anticipate continued confusion over changes in immigration law and policy, likely resulting in increased consumer fraud by unscrupulous non attorneys. Project END needs ongoing support in order to respond to this need through 2023 and beyond.
The Access to Justice Initiative also funds our Recently Arrived Immigrants Program, which provides comprehensive legal services, including consultations, brief services, and extended representation to recently arrived immigrants, as well as legal education events and training to local service providers. The number of newly arriving immigrants will continue growing as the U.S. ends of the use of Title 42 at the border and as the busing programs implemented by border states persist. Newly arrived immigrants face challenges accessing work permits because of their immigration status and lack the established community networks of other immigrants with more time living in the area. As such, many are living in economically precarious conditions, leaving them vulnerable to food instability, homelessness, and crime victimization. The need for expert legal counsel for newly arriving migrants continues to increase, outpacing our capacity. Ayuda remains committed to helping to meet increased demand; we urge the Council to support this essential work by increasing funding for the Access to Justice Initiative.
Ayuda is grateful for the opportunity to testify today. Thank you for your time.”