Emilio spent nine weeks in ICE detention before an agent put him on a bus in southern Texas. He requested a sign language interpreter and says none was provided. It wasn't until he saw a Mexican flag that he realized he wasn't being sent home to Venezuela — he was being dropped in a country where he had never lived, with no passport and no idea how to get back.

Edgar, another Deaf Venezuelan asylum seeker, was moved between detention centers in the U.S. after a traffic stop. He asked for an interpreter to understand paperwork ICE wanted him to sign. None came. Overwhelmed, he signed what turned out to be self-deportation papers without realizing it, he says. He was deported to Venezuela within days.

According to the nonprofit Mobile Pathways, over 100 people who rely on sign language as their main way of communicating have been ordered removed or deported since early 2026 — and that's likely an undercount, since it doesn't include Deaf people who use hearing aids or cochlear implants.

"DHS is supposed to ensure that you are able to access the immigration process equally to a non-disabled person," said Laura Murchie, an attorney with Disability Law United. She added that "forcing someone to sign a self-deportation form without them fully understanding what's happening is a violation of their due process."

The Rehabilitation Act already requires federal agencies to provide equal access for disabled people, including in immigration detention. Deaf detainees aren't asking for new rights — they're asking ICE to follow the law that's already on the books. Instead, staffing cuts to DHS's civil rights office have left almost nowhere for these complaints to go.

No one should be put on a bus to a country they've never lived in, or lose their case, because no interpreter showed up. Sign the petition to demand ICE guarantee qualified sign language interpreters at every stage of detention and deportation, before another Deaf immigrant is deported without ever understanding what happened to them.