Sherman Austin embarked on a mission: to create an alert network to notify the community about Immigration operations taking place nearby. The Stop ICE Alert Network lets you send and receive emergency alerts about nearby ICE raids and activity whenever and wherever it happens.
“I’m a programmer and developer. I’m concerned about the political situation, so I thought about the best way I could contribute. This network is the result of that. It allows the community to send an alert directly from your phone via a text message to the site,” says Austin.
This California resident considers the entire political situation inhumane. For him, all the excuses given by the Trump administration are just a way to target vulnerable populations and violate legitimate rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
“It’s been a success so far, even though I’ve been the only one behind this effort. I hope to secure the necessary funds to get more help, reach more people, and roll out more updates,” he adds.
Sherman Austin is no newcomer to social activism. He describes himself as an anarchist and has had several encounters with the U.S. justice system, including a federal case for which he served one year in prison. He received support from well-known musicians like Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, who called for his release.
His run-ins with the government have been frequent.
“I don’t hide anything. People who want to participate in the site can investigate me, see who I am and what I stand for. I’m very concerned about what’s happening in the country right now, but I’m even more concerned that this could become the new normal — that after Trump, his policies will stay in place and the attacks on our communities will continue,” he says.
Austin says his only goal is to raise awareness and share information. According to him, the site is designed to ensure anonymity, and its settings guarantee that the information either disappears or only shows what has been posted.
“No app required. Stop ICE Raids Alerts work with technology already built into your mobile device. The purpose of the Stop ICE Raids Alert System is to provide emergency alerts and support for those targeted by ICE raids,” the site explains.
Mobile alerts are crowd-sourced, meaning anyone can send alerts to their local area or subscribe to receive alerts.
“Trump’s new executive orders have threatened ICE raids on sanctuary cities, and he has even threatened to deploy the military for mass deportations. His fabricated National Emergency Declaration and directives to various military branches are designed to increase funding for immigration enforcement, on top of ICE and Customs and Border Protection’s already billion-dollar budget. The result is more agents, surveillance, detentions, and physical barriers that put people’s lives, families, and communities in jeopardy — all while he conflates immigration with national security and terrorism,” he adds.
Austin continues: “No browser cookies. StopICE.net does not store or read cookie data from your browser. Login details are instead authenticated through a variety of encrypted tokens behind the server and deleted shortly after each session.”
If you have any questions, you can ask directly on the website. There you’ll find how to subscribe and a more detailed explanation of how the system works.
For more information:
http://www.stopice.net/
