Cellphone GPS app could help illegal immigrants cross border

[Cruisingfool]

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Cellphone GPS app could help illegal immigrants cross border
The USA Today, December 29, 2009

Three California professors say they are developing a cellphone tool that uses GPS technology to help illegal immigrants safely cross the border.

The Transborder Immigrant Tool would help migrants find water in the deserts near the border and otherwise avoid getting lost in their treacherous trek north.

The Associated Press says the phone would be programmed to show where water stations are located and how far away they are.

'It's about giving water to somebody who's dying in the desert of dehydration,' said Micha Cardenas, 32, a UCSD lecturer.

Ricardo Dominguez, a visual arts professor, tells the North Country Times, that the cellphone technology would be similar to GPS systems in cars.

'It locates where you are in relation to where you want to go, what is the best way to get to that point and what you can expect when you reach the endpoint,' he tells the newspaper.

The ACLU and Mexico's National Commission on Human rights estimate as many as 5,600 people have died trying to cross the border in the last 15 years, the paper says.

The Times quotes Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego who now teaches immigration policy at the University of San Diego, as saying anyone distributing such devices could be committing a crime by helping people illegally cross the border.

Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott says the idea is 'nothing new,' the AP reports. 'We've seen handheld GPS devices used by smugglers,' he says. 'We're just going to have to learn to adapt to any challenges.'