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Interpreters for Immigration Detention Visits

A detained client's case is prepared in a visiting room or on a scheduled video call, in sessions the facility limits and can cut short. The immigration court provides an interpreter for the hearing; for the legal visit, the lawyer brings one. Here is what ICE's detention standards say about interpreters on legal visits, how to get one cleared and scheduled, and how to book.

For an attorney visit in ICE detention, the legal team brings the interpreter

If you are a lawyer or legal representative visiting a client in immigration detention, you bring the interpreter: ICE's detention standards let interpreters in with the legal team, but nothing in them has the facility supply one for your visit. ICE's standards require facilities to let interpreters accompany legal representatives and legal assistants on legal visits, subject to the facility's identification and search procedures (PBNDS 2011, Standard 5.7, § V.J.3.c); the 2026 National Detention Standards say the same and add that interpreters must complete the standard security clearance (NDS 2026, Standard 5.5, § G.3.d). For legal rights group presentations, the 2026 standards state that ICE is not responsible for providing interpreters for presenters (NDS 2026, Standard 6.4).

What the facility does provide is language assistance for its own business — intake, medical care, discipline and staff communication — at no cost to the detained person, and, except in emergencies, other detainees are not to be used as interpreters (NDS 2026, Standard 1.1). At the hearing itself, the immigration court provides an interpreter at government expense; the respondent or attorney should request it at least 30 days before the hearing (EOIR Practice Manual 3.10).

Who books us: immigration attorneys and accredited representatives, for intake, declarations and hearing preparation with a detained client; nonprofit legal service providers, for pre-representation meetings and know-your-rights sessions in languages their staff do not cover; medical and psychological evaluators retained by the legal team (see psychological evaluations for immigration); and families, through the lawyer they hired. Facilities follow different sets of standards — PBNDS 2011, the 2019, 2025 or 2026 National Detention Standards and others (ICE) — so the facility's own rules decide the details.

Getting the interpreter cleared and scheduled

Treat clearance as part of the booking. The 2026 standards let facilities require attorneys and accredited representatives to schedule through ICE's ERO eFile platform, and to register legal assistants there (NDS 2026, Standard 5.5). At Krome North in Miami, for example, legal visits are booked through eFile in 60-minute blocks, and if the attorney is bringing an interpreter, the interpreter's government-issued ID and an attorney authorization letter on letterhead must be attached to the appointment no later than 24 hours before; otherwise the extra visitor may be refused (ICE, Krome North SPC). Other facilities have their own lead times. Tell us the facility when you request, and we will send the interpreter's details in time for you to attach them.

The standards also protect the visit once you are in. Legal visits are confidential and not subject to auditory supervision, staff may watch through a window or camera but not listen, and routine counts may not end the visit (NDS 2026, Standard 5.5, § G.7). Facilities must allow legal visitation at least eight hours a day on business days and four on weekends and holidays (§ G.2). Documents you hand the client may be inspected but not read (PBNDS 2011, § V.J.10).

Legal video visits and calls

Under the 2026 standards, legal visits may be in person or by video teleconference, and facilities must have a way to schedule legal calls by phone or video; legal calls may not be monitored without a court order (NDS 2026, Standards 5.4 and 5.5). A remote visit removes the drive, which matters for facilities far from the nearest city, and lets an interpreter in a less common language join from wherever they are. Krome, for instance, accepts Zoom only for video legal visits and adds the meeting details to the appointment (ICE, Krome North SPC). Ask the facility whether the interpreter must be listed on a remote appointment too.

The practical limits of a detention video call are the room and the clock: one camera, a phone handset or a speaker on the client's side, and a hard stop at the end of the slot. Interpreting is consecutive and short-turned. Put the questions that must be answered first, and leave the read-back of anything to be signed for an in-person visit if the client cannot see the document on screen.

What a detention visit asks of an interpreter

• The right language, confirmed in advance. Some detained clients from Guatemala speak Mam, K'iche', Q'anjob'al or another Indigenous language first; others need Pashto rather than Dari, or Tigrinya rather than Amharic. Ask the client, or a relative, before the visit.
• Long narratives, little time. Intake and declarations need the full story with dates and names; the interpreter renders all of it in the first person and asks for a pause rather than summarizing.
• Signatures. A G-28, a declaration or a release has to be read aloud in the client's language before signing — sight translation.
• Distress. Clients may be frightened, exhausted or recently separated from family. The interpreter interprets what is said, including the hard parts, and does not reassure or advise.
• Not another detainee. A bilingual person in the same unit may be a witness, a co-respondent or simply overheard by others.

Booking a detention visit

A video legal visit is virtual: $80 for the first hour per interpreter, no travel; two back-to-back hours is $160. In person is $110 an hour with a two-hour minimum, billed from the scheduled start, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. Detention centers are often far from the interpreter: a three-hour visit with a 150-mile round trip is $330 plus $105 travel. A full day at one facility seeing several clients in the same language is eight hours, $880 plus travel, and may need two interpreters in relay; we will say so when you request.

Send the facility, the client's language and region, the date and slot, whether it is in person or by video, and what you will cover. For meetings at the office and declaration work, see immigration attorney meetings; evidence for the court is written translation at $24.95 per certified page — see immigration court certified translation.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Languages

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

Each language has its own page on what to watch for — dialects, names, dates, who the speakers usually are: see interpreters by language.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

What this page says about the rules was checked against these official sources on October 28, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — PBNDS 2011 (revised December 2016), Standard 5.7 Visitation
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — National Detention Standards, revised 2026 (Standards 1.1, 5.4, 5.5, 6.4)
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Detention Management: detention standards in use
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Krome North Service Processing Center: attorney visits and video teleconferencing
• U.S. Department of Justice, EOIR — Immigration Court Practice Manual, Chapter 3.10, Interpreters

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