Many of the services are for immigration court, asylum hearings and Superior Court. Five years ago, Quiché and Mam didn’t even break the top 25 languages spoken in immigration court. Chaj, a Quiché interpreter, used to get one or two calls a year for interpreter services. Matias is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but others who could do translation are in the country illegally and don’t want to get near immigration court. Mam, a Mayan language spoken by more than 500,000 people in Guatemala, ranked ninth in the top 10 languages spoken in U.S. immigration court last fiscal year.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 09, 2016 12:00 UTC