2017 NLADA Annual Conference

After President Trump signed an executive order to enact a Muslim travel ban, attorneys around the country mobilized to respond. They were faced with the challenge of responding to a national legal crisis while ensuring meaningful language access for limited English proficient (LEP) individuals. Though these attorneys are no longer in the airports, there continues to be an increased need to serve immigrant communities and providing LEP immigrants with proper language services. This training will be focused on the challenge of providing legal services to LEP individuals in their preferred languages in a crisis situation. The training will be broken into three parts. (1) Advocates will reflect on the weeks after the executie order and the lessons learned from their time in the airports, with a special focus on working with interpreters. (2) Presenters will discuss the current efforts to provide LEP immigrants with information regarding their rights in their preferred language. (3) The session will have a discussion between the presenters and attendees about ways advocates can create a language access network ready to respond to the next crisis.