DHS Withdraws Guidance on Language Access Rights for People with Limited English Proficiency

From the official announcement by DHS ↗

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on Executive Order 14224 signed by President Trump — an order that revokes Executive Order 13166 issued in 2000 under President Clinton — has withdrawn the LEP guidance published in 2022, which directed agencies to assess and strengthen language access policies, and issued a new memorandum to guide implementation of the executive order in April 2025. This document interprets how agencies, hospitals, schools and other recipients of federal funding must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when serving people who do not speak English fluently. Readers can look up relevant executive orders and federal notices through the Federal Register system.

It is important to clarify: this action withdraws only the interpretive guidance, not the Title VI statute itself. The new executive order cannot and does not attempt to eliminate aspects of civil rights law that require removal of language barriers to federally funded programs and services. However, without specific guidance documents, hospitals, clinics, schools and local courts will lose the reference framework to understand what they must do: whether they are required to provide interpreters, translate forms, or post bilingual notices.

This action comes after President Trump signed Executive Order 14224, which symbolically declares English the official language of the United States. The order does not repeal other federal laws that still require government agencies to provide multilingual support in elections, health care and education, and does not prohibit agencies from continuing to provide services in Spanish, Chinese or other languages.

For Vietnamese-origin communities, the groups most likely to be affected are elderly people seeking medical care, parents working with their children's schools, or newly settled residents needing to conduct business with social service agencies — places that have long relied on federal guidance to know what rights people have to request interpretation. Reduced federal oversight and allowing agencies to decide on their own when and how to provide services in languages other than English could create uncertainty about implementation and compliance, leading to inconsistency from one location to another. The withdrawal of current guidance creates new uncertainty for local governments and organizations receiving federal funding in areas such as health care, education, emergency services and public welfare.

Analysis

This is not the first time language access guidance has been withdrawn. In 2017, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, three documents related to language access were withdrawn along with 24 other guidance documents, including materials guiding courts and planning tools for federal agencies when encountering people with limited English proficiency. At that time, the Justice Department argued these documents were "outdated" or "inconsistent with current law" — a similar justification may be repeating now. Guidance withdrawals typically do not require a public comment period like a new regulation would, so the change takes effect immediately, while the actual consequences — the extent to which local agencies voluntarily maintain language services — will need to be monitored over the coming months.

Diaspora Impact

Readers do not need to file any applications or complete any procedures right now, as Title VI remains in force as a statute. However, if a hospital, school or social service agency refuses to provide an interpreter or Vietnamese-language materials, you have the right to ask about that organization's policy and may file a complaint directly with the Office for Civil Rights of the federal agency that funds that organization (for example, the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, for hospitals). You should keep emails, letters or notes from phone calls as evidence in case you need to file a complaint later.