Translation and Interpretation Services NAICS 541930

Jan 9, 2026 - January 2026 – Changing Policies, Funding Cuts Slow Asylum Process

• The termination of a 2023 Biden-era directive that required immigration judges and local Homeland Security officials to connect immigrants with resources like out-of-court translation services and funding cuts by the Trump administration that have forced some organizations to reduce their language services have slowed the asylum process in many places, according to Mission Local. Asylum seekers often rely on interpreters at every stage of the process, including finding free or low-cost legal help and understanding court notices, logistics, and the government’s requirements inside and outside the courtroom. San Francisco immigration judges still offer asylum-seekers the same list of resources as they did before the directive was terminated, but now with a warning that, most likely, every organization on the list is too busy to take on any new cases. Immigration attorneys in the Bay Area often provide in-house translation services to clients, but those who take pro bono cases now have waitlists of six months or more.
• Funding cuts by the Trump administration that have forced some healthcare providers to reduce their language services may result in more medical errors, misdiagnosis, neglect, and other adverse outcomes, according to experts including Mara Youdelman, the managing director of federal advocacy with the National Health Law Program. Language service reductions have created other problems, according to Youdelman. "We’ve really seen on the ground confusion," Youdelman told KFF Health News. "Healthcare providers and hospitals not knowing what this means for them and what they’re supposed to be doing, and patients not understanding that they still have the right to language services." Health providers that receive federal funds under the Affordable Care Act are required to make language services available. That includes making interpreters available to patients at no additional cost.

• The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in real-time interpretation is a recent phenomenon that presents opportunities and challenges for translation and interpretation services, according to customer experience technology firm CX Today. Multilingual support traditionally involved either human interpreters or automated systems that often failed to meet the speed and accuracy required in a high-pressure customer service environment but the rise of AI-driven live interpretation enables understanding and translation of customer speech in real time. AI-driven interpretation also reduces the time needed for back-and-forth communication and removes the risk of misunderstandings that can arise from human translators, according to CX Today.
• Translation and interpretation service industry employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first eight months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Translation and interpretation service industry sales are forecast to increase at a 0.31% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.