At Respond Crisis Translation (RCT), we believe that access to information should never depend on the language someone speaks. That belief guided our recent partnership with ICE Watch Legal, where our multilingual teams translated the organization's entire website into Hmong, Somali, and Spanish…
For some people, immigration seems easy. It is planned … For many others, it is not easy, not planned, and most of the time sudden and uncertain. They barely have time to gather their documents and essential belongings. I know people who always carry their documents with them because they don’t know when or if they will go back home. They don’t even know if they won’t find their house burned down when they return.
At RCT, we mobilize to ensure that anyone experiencing language as a barrier to safety or dignity has access to free, professional, trauma-informed translation and interpretation services. It may not surprise you that a large volume of the cases we take on involve LGBTQ+ individuals whose identity has meant they have been targeted, mistreated, or abused in their countries of origin…
As asylum applications are subjected to increased scrutiny and over 60,000 people are currently detained by ICE, we are seeing a dramatic increase in immigration detention cases and deportation defense cases, which has reshaped the nature of our work. As the needs on the frontlines shift, our mission remains the same: ensuring that everyone navigating the carceral immigration system has access to language support.
In the United States, many immigrant women and underserved families face enormous barriers to healthcare access. For some, health insurance is financially out of reach. For others, language barriers create fear, confusion, or mistrust within medical systems. And, in reproductive healthcare settings, those barriers can become even more urgent and dangerous.
Working on multilingual community health projects is often described in terms of coordination, timelines, and deliverables. But the reality of this work is also emotional, relational, and deeply human.
For the recent Community Health Assessment project with Contra Costa County Public Health, my role was to support …
Respond Crisis Translation has been on the frontlines of political, environmental, and economic disasters across the world.
RCT stepped in to assist the 2026 Global Sumud Flotilla by providing interpreting services at vital training sessions and translating resources for the thousands of activists involved in the movement.
The U.S. is deporting asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrants to “third countries” – places where they have never been, have no community ties, do notspeak thelanguage, have nopassports or phones,and aresubjected to torture.