Ask HN: Technology to protect immigrants and public lands?

1 bix6 4 6/19/2025, 7:08:22 PM

Hello HN,

Like many, I am very upset with the current political situation in the US. As a tech person, I would like to use my skills to help protect our country, but immigrants and public lands in particular, as those are two areas I am extremely passionate about and they are both under severe duress.

Last night I was thinking about ways I could help. I started thinking about using traffic cameras to monitor ICE so that community members can stay better informed, but apparently that is illegal (unless you're Palantir). So now I'm trying to think of other tech-based solutions that I could legally implement to help.

Is anyone aware of any groups or projects worth volunteering for? Or any ideas for projects that you think need doing but haven't been done yet?

Thanks in advance!

Comments (4)

k310 · 3h ago

As with many matters of importance, I don't see individual and small-scale tech solutions helping a lot. The "new deep state" has way too many resources and tools, including the DOGE and Palantir data collection operations.

Existing organizations, such as ACLU [0] are on the front lines, though their tech is probably focused on the legal system.

And as far as influencing legislators, social media and no doubt phones and emails are flooded by bots.

IMO, this matter is extremely difficult, since it is the focal point both of rabble-rousing and of turning law enforcement into an anonymous, unbadged and un-warranted extralegal state police force. Group action seems the only answer to me.

I recall that California is considering legislation to ban masked agents. I believe that masked faces can be de-anonymized, as evidenced by Apple FaceID, and by attacks on phone cameras and their users.

I gave a lot of thought to ways that technology can improve life in general, but they all ended up undoing what technology has done in greedy or authoritarian hands.

I haven't given up.

Some people were giving out MAGA hats to immigrants to throw a little sand in the gearbox.

[0] https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights

bix6 · 2h ago

There seem to be some community efforts that help eg groups that show up to film people getting detained so they can present evidence in court or otherwise assist their kids when their parents get taken. So I’ve been thinking about tech to assist that hence the ALPR idea.

It seems the other side needs a Palantir equivalent.

I’ll take a look at ACLU and see if they have any requests out or anything.

Thanks for trying!

almosthere · 4h ago

I would advocate for a legal solution to the government, some kind of limited form of amnesty based on the work they have contributed. I do believe there were too many people that entered the country during Biden's presidency and they need to go back to the border - but allow them to re-apply legally and have better tracking of where those immigrants are staying.

Do you think any Americans (as immigrants) in other countries don't have their addresses in database or two?

bix6 · 2h ago

The fact that they are arresting people outside of immigration court hearings shows that they don’t want legal immigration either.

I’ve tried talking to my government but Dems are getting steamrolled right now so it’s not like they can do much. I even sent western republican senators a message the other day but I’m sure they all just laughed at me.