California Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D) on Monday blasted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over a delay in multilingual disaster alerts.
At the beginning of the year, the FCC pledged to implement an order requiring wireless providers to distribute emergency alters in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. in addition to English and American Sign Language.
However, four months later, citizens are still not receiving translations for critical alerts highlighting natural disasters.
“This delay is not only indefensible but dangerous,” Barragán, former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, co-wrote in a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr alongside Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), according to the LA Times.
“It directly jeopardizes the ability of our communities to receive life-saving emergency information in the language they understand best,” the duo added.
Two dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus signed on to the correspondence.
Barragán said the unresolved issue is impacting 68 million Americans who use languages other than English — including her constituents who were recently impacted by the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The FCC has yet to publish the order providing guidance on translation requirements in the Federal Register, which would launch a 30-month timeline for compliance.
Barragán told the LA Times that President Trump’s regulatory freeze prohibited all federal agencies, including the FCC, from publishing any rule in the Federal Register until Trump administration officials provide approval.
“It’s all politics,” she told the outlet. “We don’t know why it’s stuck there and why the administration hasn’t moved forward, but it seems, like, with everything these days, they’re waiting on the president’s green light.”
The standstill comes after Trump issued an executive order in March declaring English as the country’s official language. Weeks later, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced plans to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal agency that responds to natural disasters nationwide.
“President Trump and many members of his administration have made clear they plan to go on the attack against immigrants,” Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a Los Angeles based advocacy organization, told the LA Times.
“If this makes the lives of immigrants easier, then they will stand in its way,” Kulkarni added.
