While technology gives the state new tools to more effectively police the border and restrict liberty more generally, it also gives individuals new ways of circumventing government control. An excellent example of this is a mobile phone hack being developed by artist and activist Ricardo Dominguez of UC San Diego’s b.a.n.g. lab.
The Transborder Immigration Tool, one of a number of “border disruption technologies” developed by Dominguez and his colleagues, seeks to make the dangerous journey across the Meixco-US border safer by using GPS and mapping technology to suggest safer routes, warn migrants of hazards, and show the location of food, water, and shelter provided by Border Angels and Quakers.
The tool is built using a Motorola i455 mobile phone, which costs less than $30 and has hackable GPS without the need for phone service. The interface works like a simple compass pointing to important places, and uses sound and vibration to alert migrants to new information. The tool should be ready for use by the end of next year, with Dominquez planning to release the software freely on the web as well as work with community groups in Mexico.
Illegal immigration is perhaps the best example of people choosing to be free without asking government permission. Despite harsh laws and bigoted vigilante groups, around half a million people enter the United States illegally each year to peacefully trade with Americans and pursue a better life for themselves and their children. Immigration control is one of the most harmful activities of the modern state, and anything which undermines it can only be a good thing.
With funding for 500 tools already available, this has the potential to make help a lot of people in a very difficult and dangerous time of their lives. The right are very angry about this (says a Minuteman: “I don’t think he’s an American at all. I think he’s an anarchist.”), which is also encouraging.
Hat tip: Delete the Border.
Brad Taylor is a graduate student in Political Science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He blogs at 
Thank you for posting here about this, Brad. I saw a couple of things about this project about two weeks ago and had a moment of jaw-dropped “WOW”. Would that many others shared the same reaction.
I think this project would also work well with the Canadian border, which is much longer, and less fenced. Americans would do well to consider that they need such technology not only to help friends get into the country, but also in the very likely case that the border wall will become a new Iron Curtain or Berlin Wall.
The political class is parasitic. Sooner or later, they’ll want to keep the productive from fleeing.
This is cool freedom tech!