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MIGRATION: Lost in the Desert?
There's an App for That
By Enrique Gili
SAN DIEGO, California (IPS) - Over the past two decades,
Ricardo Dominguez has made a career for himself tweaking
the sensibilities of government officials and developing
software tools meant to disrupt the status quo.
Presently, he leads a team at the University of
California at San Diego that is designing a mobile
application to assist migrants attempting to cross the
U.S.-Mexico border.
In the future, low-cost cell phones could be placed in
the hands of migrants crossing the border illegally.
This summer, Dominguez hopes to distribute the phone to
church groups and activists working with migrants along
the border.
The wayfinding device is called the Transborder
Immigrant Tool. It is an application specifically
designed for migrants attempting to make the dangerous
journey north into the United States.
Commonly referred to as apps, mobile applications are
becoming ubiquitous as cell phones become feature-rich
information managers, bundling text messaging, GPS, and
digital cameras into one neat handheld device. Once the
domain of business professionals, the gee-whiz gadgets
are being used in new and unexpected ways.
Dominguez says the primary use of the GPS/phone device
"is to offer people making the crossing a way not to
die." He calculates that the wayfinding tool increases
the likelihood of survival by two percent for migrants
who find themselves lost in a desert renowned for its
treacherous terrain.
Development of the tool is currently underway at
CalLit2Lab, a multidisciplinary think tank that
encourages technological experimentation. Dominguez, a
visual artist, calls himself an "artivist" - part
artist, part political activist - in the tradition of
the Dadaist art movement that challenged conventional
notions about the function of art and its process.
In the late 1990s, Dominguez co-founded the Electronic
Disturbance Theatre, a group of like-minded political
activists that staged electronic sit-ins against the
U.S. and Mexican governments for their alleged
persecution of the Zapatistas and indigenous people of
Chiapas.
Dominguez wants to distribute the device as the
temperature climbs into the triple digits. The purpose
is to provide real-time information on the location of
water caches, stashed in way stations positioned along
remote desert tracks. The device would also transmit
poems meant to provide comfort and encouragement to
migrants.
"The phone is like a virtual Statue of Liberty," said
Dominguez.
Each year, legions of migrants attempt to thread their
way through the rugged terrain separating San Diego and
Imperial County from Mexico's northern frontier. They
risk blistering daytime temperatures and bone-chilling
nights, with no potable water within easy walking
distance.
As the principal investigator, Dominguez and his
colleagues are field-testing the app in San Diego County
where the border fence extends 22 kilometres inland from
the Pacific Ocean, traversing rugged mountain terrain.
According to Dominguez, the wayfinding device was
inspired by the nonfiction title, "The Devils Highway,"
a graphic account of lost migrants facing death from
dehydration in the Sonora desert in 2001. Historically,
the "El Camino del Diablo" was a desert route that
linked Mexico's northern frontier with modern-day
Arizona.
Issuing the phone could result in prosecution under
federal law for "aiding and abetting" border crossers
attempting to enter the United States in violation of
USC section 1825, which refers "to encouraging or
inducing unauthorised aliens to enter the United States,
and engaging in a conspiracy or aiding and abetting any
of the preceding acts."
Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department lawyer and
security expert, observed, "It would be like you telling
me that you were going to cross the border illegally,
and I provided you with water and a flashlight, or more
aptly, a map with a red line drawn in it."
Months prior to deployment, the GPS phone is already
proving divisive. It has become the focus of heated
debate among people already angry over border policy
matters that pit law-and-order types against academics
and human rights activists.
One person's right to academic free expression is
another's unlawful activity. Forums on the OC Register,
Boing Boing, and Vice web sites are spiked with
acid-tongued commentary. Attitudes towards the device
have become as much a part of the story as the story
itself.
"We've received death threats," said Amy Sara Carroll, a
professor from Michigan University who is currently
visiting UC San Diego.
Such sentiments reflect the pitiless nature of the
border. Conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border have
deteriorated in recent years, as drug-fueled gun
violence in cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez
have spiraled out of control, affecting border towns in
the U.S. southwest.
Security and surveillance operations meant to curtail
illegal activity along the border have forced
traffickers and migrants deeper into the desert and away
from U.S. population centres such as San Diego
(California), Tucson (Arizona), and Las Cruces (New
Mexico), with deadly consequences.
A report released by the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) estimated that in the 15 years since the launch
of Operation Gate Keeper, in 1994, between 5,000 and
6,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the border.
Human rights activists decry the economic conditions
that lead migrants to take such dangerous risks.
"If it saves one life, it will be worth it," wrote
Enrique Morones, founder of the Border Angels, a San
Diego- based advocacy group that places water caches and
supplies in remote desert regions.
Daryl Reed, a spokesperson for the U.S. Border Patrol,
almost seemed resigned. He noted that traffickers have
used cell phones for years as a way to monitor the
movements of law enforcement officers.
However, he expressed concern that the wayfinding tool
might provide a false sense of security, leading to
additional loss of life. "Not everyone is able to make
that trek," he said.
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