ATA Newsbriefs

Sayed Naser, a former Afghan interpreter who helped U.S. military forces during the war in Afghanistan, was arrested by ICE agents earlier this month after appearing for an immigration hearing in San Diego. He may now face deportation despite death threats from the Taliban.

Naser’s attorney, Brian McGoldrick, who requested that his client’s family name not be used, said Naser came to the U.S. within the past two years after he was unable to be airlifted out of Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal. Naser used the now-defunct CBP One app to ask for asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was granted parole and was in the process of applying for a Special Immigrant Visa.

“While he was in Afghanistan, he was threatened repeatedly. His family was threatened repeatedly,” McGoldrick said. “He believes that if he returns, he’ll be detained, probably tortured, and possibly even killed.”

As part of its aggressive immigration policy, the Trump administration has been making it harder for asylum-seekers to stay in the U.S. The scene of ICE agents arresting immigrants at courthouses has become common in the past few months, but Naser’s situation in San Diego played out a bit differently.

Bystanders filmed Naser as he was approached by two masked ICE agents after a routine immigration hearing. The agents don’t show a warrant, and they don’t even seem to be sure they have the right person. In the video, Naser can be heard telling the agents that he worked with the U.S. military back in his home country, Afghanistan. As the agents handcuff him, Naser starts to tell onlookers that he’s a former interpreter for the U.S. Army.

“He spent three years working with the U.S. military at great risk to himself, and the Taliban already killed part of his family,” McGoldrick said. “They [ICE] didn’t care that, you know, he was really our ally. I don’t think anybody took the time to even go through that. They want to deny him even the opportunity to have his asylum case heard by having his case dismissed, putting him into expedited removal, and trying to spirit him out of the country.”

ICE confirmed that Naser is in custody but did not provide additional details.

Sarah Verardo is a national advocate for wounded veterans and their caregivers and the founder of the advocacy group Save Our Allies. Verardo’s husband was severely wounded in Afghanistan. She said seeing Afghans like Naser arrested is another wound.

“So much of the moral injury that we see among veterans now has really resurfaced with these issues of how we’ve abandoned our Afghan allies. And the Trump administration has an opportunity, while they pursue strong immigration reform, to also say that as a nation, we stand with those who stood with us.”

NPR (6/19/25) By Quil Lawrence

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A collective open call for scouting residencies for literary translators has been announced by European literary organizations working to promote the Archipelagos Project. The project is designed to uncover the diversity of literary voices in Europe by offering residencies to literary translators working in lesser-used languages.

Led by France’s Atlas-Citl (International College of Literary Translators), the Archipelagos Project has eight main partners from seven countries working in 10 languages. There are four associated partners that support the project, with dedicated activities such as a summer school for booksellers, seminars for librarians, and translation workshops.

The Archipelagos Project will offer residencies over the next three years to more than 100 literary translators throughout Europe. There will also be 10 translation workshops to attract as many as 150 participants.

Julie Duthey, who is responsible for communication at Atlas, said the Archipelagos Project was created to help develop linguistic diversity in Europe’s translated literature marketplace. The key goal is to highlight how literary translators facilitate the discovery of less-translated literature.

“A little-known and often unpaid part of the translator’s work consists of finding new voices,” Duthey said. “By funding residencies dedicated to the translator’s scouting activity, the Archipelagos Project recognizes and supports this research. We support translators from all over Europe in their scouting activity, offering them the opportunity to prepare a portfolio and build trusting relationships with publishers.”

Publishing Perspectives (06/16/25) By Jaroslaw Adamowski

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In California, some Monterey County leaders are pushing for a new Indigenous-language access pilot program to address the healthcare needs of Oaxacan Indigenous people in the community. This proposal would be a pilot program at the Alisal Health Clinic in East Salinas.

The program would hire Indigenous medical interpreters for appointments and community health workers to help with paperwork. Clinics would also need to flag whenever someone needs an interpreter.

“This is always about trying to do better in healthcare, so that we can make things easier when people are trying to visit their doctors or get health care for their children, which is essential,” said Luis Alejo, District 1 supervisor for the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. “I am very confident in our health department. I think they also recognize there is a need here.”

KION News (6/2/25) By Sergio Berrueta

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Publishers Fitzcarraldo Editions, Giramondo Publishing, and New Directions have launched the biennial Poetry in Translation Prize for collections translated into English, which will award an advance of $5,000 (£3,700) to be shared equally between poet and translator.

The winning collection will be published in the U.K. and Ireland by Fitzcarraldo Editions, in Australia and New Zealand by Giramondo, and in North America by New Directions.

“We wanted to open our doors to new poetry in translation to give space and gain exposure to poetry we may not be aware of,” said Rachael Allen, poetry editor for Fitzcarraldo. “There is no other prize like this that we know.”

The prize announcement comes amid a sales boom in translated fiction in the U.K. Joely Day, who works as a co-editor with Allen at Fitzcarraldo, believes “the space that the work of translators has opened in the reading lives of English speakers through the success of fiction in translation will also extend to poetry.”

The prize seeks to find works “which are formally innovative, which feel new, which have a strong and distinctive voice, and which surprise, energize, and move us,” said Day. “My personal hope is that the prize reaches fledgling or aspiring translators and provides an opening for them, and that it enables translators of poetry in particular to find a platform and encourages translators who want to work with poetry to do so.”

The Guardian (6/24/25) By Ella Creamer

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The Belgian Chamber of Translators and Interpreters (CBTI) has joined the call for broader demands for a structural reform of the justice system, aligning with magistrates and public prosecutors who have been vocal about systemic issues in the sector.

A statement published by the CBTI on June 17, 2025, specifically highlights recurrent issues faced by linguists, arguing that these problems make the professions unsustainable. “Sworn translators and interpreters, often called upon for long, overnight, or weekend assignments, are demanding not only reliable and prompt payments but also a significant increase in their fee schedules.”

Official translation and interpreting rates in Belgium for 2025 became effective in January, but practitioners still consider them too low compared to the private sector. The CBTI is requesting an increase and for the government to “urgently and materially” address persistent, chronic payment delays.

These are concerns that the CBTI has voiced before. In October 2024, interpreters stopped working abruptly to protest the same payment issues, at the time causing delays for a landmark trial.

Translators and interpreters also argue that difficult working conditions are leading to a growing shortage of qualified professionals and other risky situations, including prolonged hearings, procedural errors, and even acquittals due to a lack of proper linguistic support.

According to the Brussels Times, public prosecutors have voiced their concerns about working conditions and staff shortages in the system. In an open letter read during a press conference, prosecutors asked, “How will we continue to find enough police officers, translators, interpreters, legal experts, or recovery services?”

Slator (6/24/25) By Rocío Txabarriaga

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