Deaf Venezuelan asylum seeker deported without interpreter, stranded in Mexico
Emilio, a Deaf Venezuelan man who had lived in Texas for nearly four years and worked at Amazon, was detained by ICE in December 2025 during what he expected to be a routine check-in for his asylum case. After nine weeks in immigration detention without access to a sign language interpreter, he was put on a bus in southern Texas and only realized he was being deported to Mexico rather than Venezuela when he saw a Mexican flag. He did not know Mexican Sign Language, which differs from Venezuelan Sign Language, and relied on financial help from other Deaf people to travel from Villahermosa to Mexico City, where he remained stuck with no connections in the country. According to data from the nonprofit Mobile Pathways verified by Mother Jones, more than 100 Deaf people who use sign language as their primary language have received deportation or removal orders since the beginning of 2026.





































