Thread: Illegal Immigration: There's an App for That

Illegal Immigration: There's an App for That

Written by Jolie O'Dell / November 16, 2009 6:00 PM

From a group calling themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience comes the 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."

On startup, the app finds GPS satellites. 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.

In an 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."

Hundreds of would-be immigrants 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 U.S. 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.

So, what do our readers think?

Is this Dominguez a political dissident or a legitimate academic researcher - or both? And is a mobile app enabling illegal Mexican immigration to the U.S. 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?



http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/il ... r_that.php

So, what do our readers think? Tell what i think! I think they should be charged with espionage and threatening national security, whats to stop a terrorist using that Technology?

Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-178062.html

U.S. Prof. Maps Out Safe Routes For Mexicans Heading North

Last Updated: Tue, 11/17/2009 - 3:59pm

An activist Chicano professor at a taxpayer-funded university has created special technology to help Mexicans enter the United States illegally by mapping the safest routes through the notoriously rigorous southern border desert.

The innovative Transborder Immigrant Tool is a simple mobile application—inserted into the cheapest available cell phone on the market—which guides illegal aliens through the least dangerous routes, areas with shelter, food, water and so-called Quaker help centers that provide medical attention and directions to the nearest major U.S. highway.

The Transborder Immigrant Tool is simply the latest of several devices created by members of a technologically sophisticated, pro illegal immigration group (Mexico/U.S. Border Disturbance Art Project) that aims to help Mexican migrants evade the U.S. Border Patrol. The new mobile program is touted as an “intelligent agent algorithmâ€

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4708--0-0.html

With this new technological gizmo, there is a danger that hundreds or thousands more foreigners will try to cross into the US from Mexico, now that the chances of survival from the trip are greater.

We should give this info to the head of DHS, Janet Napolitano, because she has recently declared that "the border is now secure enough for us to start talking about Comprehensive Immigration Reform". I wonder if the gizmo would sway her to change her mind.

how do we contact this clown and his superiors?

we need to lay down a barrage of hell raising over this guy

he needs to lose his "taxpayer" payed job

does this not count as treason?

Border Patrol could simply use the same application to know where to look.
That's what I'd do.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ce ... ammer2.htm

. . . To jam a cell phone, all you need is a device that broadcasts on the correct frequencies. Although different cellular systems process signals differently, all cell-phone networks use radio signals that can be interrupted. GSM, used in digital cellular and PCS-based systems, operates in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands in Europe and Asia and in the 1900-MHz (sometimes referred to as 1.9-GHz) band in the United States. Jammers can broadcast on any frequency and are effective against AMPS, CDMA, TDMA, GSM, PCS, DCS, iDEN and Nextel systems. Old-fashioned analog cell phones and today's digital devices are equally susceptible to jamming. . .

This is an outrage!

I wonder what the application looks like? What it uses for navigation, (GPS, Cell tower triangulation, signal strength of a given tower (Beacon)) not all applications are glitch free, esp navigation ones. In other words, what are the specifics ?

A state employee aiding and abetting illegals. Every person captured with this application installed on their phone should be a count against the professor.

Wait until the hacker community gets a hold it!