VivirLatino

As a media justice activist, I was thrilled to read about this new GPS application. What it does is basically allow any phone user who has capabilities of downloading applications to download information on safe border crossings between Mexico and the U.S.. It will include information such as where water stations are, where safer crossings are, and it will even give out inspirational poems to let crossers know they aren’t alone on their crossing.

It was ‘how can we tweak this GPS algorithm and develop it for another concern — the question of people dying on the border.’ ”

The tool pairs cheap cell phone technology with a global-positioning system and consistently updated online data to guide individuals who are trying to cross international borders. The GPS system, however, doesn’t contact all three satellites so authorities would not be able to triangulate where the person is, unless he or she used the phone to make a call.

Border Patrol officials said the device won’t stop them from nabbing border-crossers.

“The technology is not new…,” said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mark Qualia. He added that he’s seen these sort of tools used before. “That’s the nature of our job. We have to learn to overcome and to adapt.”

Of course, this application has led to all sorts of angry outbursts from the Nativist community. This application (and the creators) are aiding and abetting a crime, the enemy, etc etc etc and should, of course, be arrested and locked up forever.

But Ricardo Dominguez (the lead creator of the application) has a response, “”We’re not trying to resolve the border issues…We’re just trying to create a poetic safety tool. Anyone can agree on safety as a far as a core human right.”

But of course, a decent discussion about human rights can’t be had when it comes to teh illegulz:

Minuteman Britt Craig, who splits his time between the Campo border and his home in Mission Viejo, said he understands Dominguez’ invention on a humanitarian level.

“I’m sure his intentions are good. He doesn’t want people to die in the desert. I don’t want people to die in the desert either,” said Craig, 60.

Still, he said, the device won’t do the border-crosser or the American people any favors.

“As soon as they get over here the problem hasn’t ended, it’s just begun,” he said. “They are in an immediate state between a slave and a legal free man laborer. They are totally at the mercy of the people who hire them and they just begin ruining the economy for the people who are legal to work here.”

Craig said he doesn’t believe the device will keep people from dying in the desert. He said he fears that it may have an opposite affect of emboldening some to make the journey on their own with the device.

“It may give people the confidence to go out and not be able to physically cross it and die,” he said. “He may actually lead someone to their doom with the device… an unintended consequence. If they think a cell phone is going to get them through 80 miles of desert, south of Yuma. They are mistaken.”

To which I say, Thank Gawd we’ve got the man who sits on the border with a gun to look out for teh illegulz! Who knew that the man with a gun aimed at you only wants what’s best for you!

On a more serious note, be sure to check out and support the makers of this application!