photo: Larksflem/ BY-NC-SA

A new phone app is being developed to help undocumented immigrants cross the border from Mexico into the U.S—it's called the Transborder Immigrant Tool. The app is being created by Ricardo Dominguez who works in the visual arts department at the University of California San Diego. Dominguez says he will be working with communities south of the border and organizations that deal with people preparing to cross the border to help train them to use the app. 

“Using the cheapest cell phones possible (specifically the under-$30 Motorola i455, which comes with a GPS applet), Dominguez and his team were able to create a hack that added navigation functionality and the ability to locate water and highways.” via Switched

According to the creator, the app is “a safety tool” and nothing more.
 

"I would imagine [anti-immigration militias] won't be too happy with us, but again we're not trying to hide. It's a safety tool. It's not trying to resolve the political anxieties of these communities or resolve the inadequacies of a fictional border for a so-called free-trade community. Again, our position is that it's not a political resolution; it's a safety tool. That, at the core, is what we're attempting to do."

 

As a person who crossed the border, I know what you can carry with you while crossing is very limited. Whether this app is feasible given the conditions of crossing, remains to be seen. Purchasing a phone in developing countries is not cheap; I doubt that many people could afford it. A lot of people die crossing the border, so I wonder if this will help reduce the number of people dying while crossing. I also wonder about if the app will serve as a road map to U.S. grounds. If so, it may make crossing much easier. 

When I was crossing I noticed that the people with me barely knew how to work a phone yet, much less a GPS system. Plus, the coyote is the “GPS”—but you can’t trust coyotes at all.  It's an interesting idea to introduce new technology for people who are particularly vulnerable, but as I said, we'll have to see how it goes.