This app misses the point

Almost 6,000 migrants have died in the Arizona desert since the mid-1990s, when border enforcement in California was tightened and migration routes shifted east into barren, deadly territory. Today, migrants are 17 times more likely to die while crossing the border than they were in 1998. Despite the difficulty of making a successful crossing, people take the “Devil’s Path” because the mathematics of opportunity have not changed significantly: An immigrant with a job in the United States can earn in one hour what would be a full day’s wages in Mexico.

Various groups have tried to address this dangerous new reality. Borstar, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency’s excellent search-and-rescue program, saves hundreds of people -- including 351 since October -- as does Mexico’s Grupo Beta, which patrols the Mexican side of the border. And civilian groups such as Border Angels and Humane Borders leave water along the most common routes. These efforts, which skirt the politics of illegal immigration, deserve praise and additional resources.

But aiding desperate migrants who already are in the desert is one proposition, and offering assistance before they begin their trek is another. That’s why the creation of a new cellphone application that uses the global positioning system to guide migrants to caches of water that have been left for them is troubling. The Transborder Migration Tool, developed by three professors at UC San Diego and a colleague at the University of Michigan, will be installed on phones distributed by Mexican nongovernmental organizations and churches to those about to set out.

Our concern is that the new technology will give migrants a false sense of security about the horrors ahead of them. What will happen, for instance, if the cache is found, but there is no water left because another group got there first?

The best app would be one that warns migrants not to cross. It would tell them that when the temperature soars to 115 degrees, dehydration sets in within minutes. It would say that first the body stops producing urine, sweat, saliva and tears in an attempt to conserve water. Muscle spasms and nausea follow before the victim slides into a coma. It would say the body needs 1 liter of water an hour to survive. Already the migrants who dare the crossing often find that they have been deluded. A better way to save them would be to spend time, energy and resources on telling them the truth.