The whole issue of providing water stations or at least strategically placed water bottles in the desert for illegal border crossers from Mexico is an interesting dichotomy. Some view the effort as akin to abetting an illegal activity, others as simply keeping people from dying from dehydration in the hot and rough terrain north of the border.
Realistically, it’s a bit of both.
Many are more focused on what they view as the compassion side of the question than they are the unlawful activity. Former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter, he and his family certainly not known for a stance in support of open borders, even has a brother involved in providing water for border crossers. John Hunter is often quoted in news stories on the issue.
Similar to debates over needle exchange programs — philosophically, at least — it’s no different than apologizing for any illegal activity within the context of "settling" for what many believe will take place anyway, like it or not. The message seems to be clear: People will break the law in a particular arena, so as long as they will be doing so, they might as well not die in the process.
For some, the comparison between drug addiction and border crossing may end with the question of fault. "It’s not their fault they are simply striving for a better life," is the typical refrain, "and they have no idea what they will face in a dangerous border crossing by foot."
So, faculty members at the University of California at San Diego are now taking "compassion" to the next level, as they develop a GPS phone device to assist border crossers. Here are some excerpts from the December 29 10News story…
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 U.S.
Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water. It also pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus’ words did a century ago to the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" on 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.
The designers — three visual artists on UCSD’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.
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.
"There are many, many areas in which every American would say I don’t like the way my tax dollars are being spent. Our answer to that is an in-your-face, so what?" says UCSD lecturer Brett Stalbaum, 33, a self-described news junkie who likens his role to chief technology officer.
The designers want to load inexpensive phones with GPS software that takes signals from satellite, independent of phone networks. Pressing a menu button displays water stations, with the distance to each. A user selects one and follows an arrow on the screen.
The designers, who have raised $15,000 from a UCSD grant and an art festival award, hope to hand out phones for free in Mexico. The phones sell used for about $30 apiece. It costs nothing to add the GPS software.
Perhaps many illegal border crossers really don’t have a clear picture of the dangers of such a desert trek.
Yet, compassion aside for a moment, they do know it’s unlawful. That’s something even the most rabid apologists have to admit, whether they like the laws of the United States or not. After all, if border crossers didn’t know their effort was illegal, why attempt a remote desert crossing? The answer is obvious.
Only a zealot cannot see the clear dichotomy in that.
Speaking of a dichotomy, in this case the zealots clearly understand the illegality of the situation, in the midst of brazenly making a mockery of the laws they don’t like, all while openly using the dollars provided by the very entity that put the laws in place. And, as long as the law-making entity does nothing about it, we will continue to read such stories and shake our heads in disbelief.
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Albeit a bit late, a Happy New Year to all of you!
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