Fighting words: for millions of U.S. residents still learning English, language access is sometimes a matter of life and death--and increasingly, a fight for civil rights.(FEATURE)

ON A COLD NEW YORK CITY NIGHT years ago, Josefa Marin rushed her daughter to the hospital. The baby girl had fallen out of a defective high chair. A recent immigrant from Mexico, Marin was still learning and could not yet understand English. When she got to the hospital, she faced suspicious questioning about how her daughter was injured. In Spanish, Marin explained what had happened. The monolingual hospital employees didn't understand her, but they wouldn't call an interpreter. Instead, they called the city's Administration for Children's Services, who took custody of the baby under the assumption that Marin had abused her child. After a month without seeing her child, ...