Sites of (Mis)Translation: The Credible Fear Process in United States Immigration Detention

33 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2020 Last revised: 20 Jul 2021

See all articles by Kif Augustine-Adams

Kif Augustine-Adams

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School

D. Carolina Núñez

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School

Date Written: August 1, 2020

Abstract

The credible fear interview presents a high-stakes encounter in the circumscribed legal process afforded to individuals in immigration detention as they seek to claim asylum in the United States. Limited research, however, exists on the sociolegal consequences of translation and interpretation in the asylum process generally and the credible fear context specifically. Our paper advances that scholarship in the context of the credible fear process for detained individuals by focusing on two sites of potential (mis)translation and (mis)interpretation: 1) explaining “credible fear” and 2) transposing individual facts and trauma into the legal categories that United States and international asylum law recognize as forming the basis for an asylum claim.

Keywords: immigration law, asylum, credible fear interview

Suggested Citation

Augustine-Adams, Kif and Núñez, D. Carolina, Sites of (Mis)Translation: The Credible Fear Process in United States Immigration Detention (August 1, 2020). 35 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 399 (2021), BYU Law Research Paper No. 20-26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3697563

Kif Augustine-Adams (Contact Author)

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School ( email )

430 JRCB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
United States

D. Carolina Núñez

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School ( email )

430 JRCB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
115
Abstract Views
724
Rank
433,058
PlumX Metrics