‘Watch out’: How apps are helping migrants stay safe through ICE crackdown

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

On a weekday morning in May, the Hack Latino app issued an alert to its users: There were five Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrol vehicles on a certain avenue in Grand Island, Nebraska. “Watch out!” the message urged in Spanish.

Hack Latino is an artificial intelligence-powered app for Latinos in the US, made by the Georgia-based entrepreneur Adrian Lozano Jr. It offers restaurant suggestions and consular information to more than 30,000 users, along with a key feature to keep them safe: a map of ICE sightings, launched in April.

It is one of a slew of mobile platforms created by nonprofit organisations, independent developers, and foreign governments, which have cropped up amid a surge in immigration raids in the US.

The Donald Trump administration has vowed to enact mass deportations from the US, home to some 13.7 million undocumented individuals. The digital tools provide services such as “Know Your Rights” guides, legal information, and emergency resources to help the community prepare for potential encounters with immigration authorities.

Apps such as Hack Latino or digital tools like Stop ICE Alerts function much like the community patrols of the 1990s, when neighbours and activists in neighborhoods with a large Hispanic presence would...

Read more

News