Immigration: There's an App for That

This blog post is borrowed verbatim from Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog, but that's OK because the author of that blog, Professor Gregory Weeks, is my son:

Really interesting article in the New York Times about the use of cellphones to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

“I’ve crossed eight times, and this is the first time they’ve directed me with my cellphone,” said Sandra Silva, 30, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, who was on her way to Phoenix. “It’s like a guide through the desert.”

It is a bit surprising that this is so new.  With regard to the border, considerable attention is paid to technology, and yet this is one of the most basic, cheap, and widely available technologies.

Regardless, this development should remind us that as long as there is demand for employment in the United States, the supply of labor will meet it one way or another (or in the case of the migrant interviewed in the story, eight ways or another).  It is truly that simple.

Oh, by the way, there is an app for that:

To reduce the number of fatalities among border crossers, a University of San Diego professor, Ricardo Dominguez, has been developing a cellphone application to help guide illegal immigrants to water stations and other points of safety.