GPS plan to help illegal immigrants find water

A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the United States.

Faculty at UC San Diego are developing a Global Positioning System-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water and pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much the way Emma Lazarus' words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on their way to Ellis Island.

The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.

Immigration hardliners argue the activists are aiding illegal entry to the United States, a felony. Even migrants and their sympathizers question whether the device will make the treacherous journeys easier.

The designers - three visual artists on UC San Diego's faculty and an English professor at the University of Michigan - are undeterred as they criticize a U.S. policy they say embraces illegal immigrants for cheap labor while letting them die crossing the border.

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

The effort is being done on the government's dime - an irony not lost on the designers whose salaries are paid by the state of California.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/MNMF1BB3LT.DTL#ixzz0dliCz9j3

[Posted by Yoori Chung]