www.readwriteweb.com/archives/illegal_immigration_theres_an_app_for_that.php
Transborder Immigrant Tool, a simple mobile application intended to aid and abet border-crossers from Mexico to the United States by mapping the safest routes to take. This GPS app is built to work on the cheapest cell phones available. It brings to mind every petty-but-illegal transgression the casual user could commit and stretches the boundaries of the permissibility of tech's uses for plausibly illegal means. The next time you use P2P or bit torrent clients to download media or use an iPhone app to detect police radars, think about this mobile application and how it reflects on American law and the Internet. UPDATE: According to the Transborder Immigration Tool website, the application uses Spatial Data Systems and GPS "for simulation, surveillance, resource allocation, management of cooperative networks and pre-movement pattern modeling (such as the Virtual Hiker Algorithm) an algorithm that maps out a potential or suggested trail for real a hiker/or hikers to follow." In addition to allowing would-be illegal immigrants quick and simple access to map information, the application's creators hope it will "add an intelligent agent algorithm that would parse out the best routes and trails on that day and hour for immigrants to cross this vertiginous landscape as safely as possible." Once the user begins moving, the app acts as a compass that shows the direction the user is heading and also shows the direction a user must travel to reach a "safety site." The app seems to originate from a hacktivist group out of UCSD - hardly a historical hotbed of technological innovation, but close enough to the US-Mexican border to have a significant impact on the politics of technology in that area. The group also advocates DDoS-like digital sit-ins to bog down the resources of websites it deems offensive.
interview with Vice Magazine, the app's creator, Ricardo Dominguez, said, "We looked at the Motorola i455 cell phone, which is under $30, available even cheaper on eBay, and includes a free GPS applet. We were able to crack it and create a simple compass-like navigation system. We were also able to add other information, like where to find water left by the Border Angels, where to find Quaker help centers that will wrap your feet, how far you are from the highway - things to make the application really benefit individuals who are crossing the border."
are killed each year while trying to enter the United States. Check out this Border Patrol YouTube video on the newly installed double-layered fencing between the US and Mexico, a fence that stretches between 700 and 800 miles along the Rio Grande.
The application is currently in an alpha state of development. Dominguez hopes that, through working with Mexican communities, churches, and other organizations, the app will be ready to use soon. Is this Dominguez a political dissident or a legitimate academic researcher - or both? And is a mobile app enabling illegal Mexican immigration to the US a live-saving tool for those who seek better opportunities, or is it simply another law-breaking tool developed by tech hackers for life hackers, a workaround to cheat the system?
Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts 1 Saying it works to "aid and abet border-crossers" isn't clear at all... You're the best in terms of what kind of content will broaden the RWW reader base. They mostly are about tech-geeks drinking each others Kool-Aid. So, as always, thanks for not drinking as much Kool-Aid as the rest of 'em. You make this site more real, more diverse and more sophisticated! But in this case, I'd rather understand what you're talking about rather than praise how good you are at what you do!
The current fence just deterred coyotes from using 'traditional' routes and now they enter using new ones, albeit risky and life-endangering. The current government policies are deficient and short-sighted. I hope this can shed some light on your understanding of the actual utility of the current fence system.
The ILLEGAL ALIENS send BILLIONS upon BILLIONS out of this Country every year, money we will NEVER see again. How about the BILLIONS the American taxpayers fork out for the ILLEGAL ALIEN BABIES, the schooling of them, the medical care and the list goes on, and on, and on. How about the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS paid to jail ILLEGAL ALIENS for the crimes, then the cost to deport them. Then you have these activist groups, the Catholic Church and the ACLU that want AMNESTY for these ILLEGAL ALIENS. It would be absolute suicide for this Country if AMNESTY were granted to the 20 million or so ILLEGAL ALIENS. We have more and more people out of work everyday and they want to add another 20 million to this Country? If AMNESTY were ever granted to these 20 million ILLEGAL ALIENS, you can bet big money that 3 years from now, there would be ANOTHER 3-5 million ILLEGAL ALIENS demonstrating on our soil for AMNESTY. It MUST be used by ALL businesses and Government Social Services. I believe it is time for all 50 States to pass a State law, like Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and a few others. It is time for these ILLEGAL ALIENS to go back to their home Country and get out of this Country. The problems they are causing will not go away until the ILLEGAL ALIENS are out of this Country. It's time for them to get back to their own country where they belong.
when you Americans wanna come to Mexico, they don't ask you for properties or lots of money in the bank, simply get your passport and you're welcome but the states makes it hard, for us, that's why we have to cross illegally, now please try to understand your government, tree is recognized by its fruits, to know who's the one to blame it's enough to see who's the one getting all the benefits.
But, let me make correction about the name of the group and practice: The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a small group of artivists engaged in developing the theory and practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) since 1998, with the development of FloodNet (the first automated virtual sit-in tool). Our current project the Transborder Immigrant Tool continues this tradition of artivism - the merger of technology, activism and art. The tool is both a simple safety tool and a poetic gesture about hospitality.
WE DON'T NEED DEPORTATION ON A MASSIVE SCALE AS THEY WILL LEAVE ON THERE OWN. POLITICIANS CAN ADD AMENDMENTS TO THE 1986 IMMIGRATION BILL, INSTEAD OF THE TRAVESTY OF FORCING A NEW ONE ON THE FINANCIALLY HURTING AMERICAN PEOPLE? Bloggers nationwide brought to the public attention the need to stop the infiltration of illegal immigrants in the workplace. Harry Reid (D-NV) Special attention should be drawn to incorrigible governors, lawmakers, mayors judges and elected officials who have ordained policies of SANCTUARY STATES. Hopefully E-Verify will become a nationwide vetting system to remove illegal workers from your office or from your factory? It has shown its efficiency, because the open border organizations have moved heaven and earth to smash it? Now it is firmly entrenched in every American workers mind, that it can save their jobs. Harry Reid, who tried to table E-Verify failed miserably and now, is funded for another 3 years. This gives reputable politicians time to make E-Verification mandatory as it's been evaluated as a good immigration enforcement instrument and it could be introduced for other purposes. As a national legal people's identifier and combined with other data bases, it usages could be essential to recognize fraudulent drivers license, auto registration. Child support, health care and many other verifications of individual who think they are safe from government. But its main restrictions will to terminate foreign nationals appropriating US workers jobs. In the future this data base could be established at airport terminals for departures and arrivals. It will be an ongoing fight against the opponents such as US chamber of Commerce, ACLU, Council of Foreign Relations, business organizations, agriculture and other groups. It is certain to be a bargaining chip in shoving through another Comprehensive Immigration Reform packa...
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