What is the time course of cross-language activation in deaf sign–print bilinguals? Previous studies showing cross-language activation in deaf bilinguals employed paradigms that would permit strategic or conscious translation. This study explores whether cross-language activation can be removed by decreasing the time available for lexical processing. Deaf ASL–English bilinguals and hearing English monolinguals viewed pairs of English words and evaluated their semantic similarity. Half of the stimuli had phonologically linked translations in ASL, but participants saw only English words. The study reproduced previous findings of cross-language activation despite the introduction of a much faster rate of presentation. Further, the deaf bilinguals were as fast or faster than hearing monolinguals despite the fact that the task was in their second language. The results permit to exclude the possibility that deaf ASL–English bilinguals only activate ASL phonological forms when given ample time for strategic or conscious translation across their two languages.