At a time when immigration authorities are deployed in various states across the country to detain immigrants- leaving their families without answers- a new mobile application helps them, with a single click, to notify their loved ones and their attorneys before being taken into custody.
The multilingual application called Ready Now is designed to help immigrants be prepared,create emergency plans in case of possible detention and take action in times of crisis.
Arrests are usually sudden
“Arrests by ICE are often sudden, leaving people without the opportunity to notify family, arrange childcare, or access legal help,” say the organizations Acacia Center for Justice y North Heart.
Human Rights First Innovation Lab,with input from these two organizations, developed this app that ensures no one is detained without their support network knowing and having the information needed to respond.
“We have to make sure that our children, our loved ones-whether it’s our grandparents we care for, our dogs, or our children-have a plan in case the person in charge of them is detained”, said Diana Díaz Madera, a mental health therapist at Corazón Norte and advisor to Human Rights First.
Related>> “Worker’s Eye”: New map tracking immigration raids in North Carolina
Personal information remains secure
App users can enter their personal information and be ready to activate their emergency plan during an encounter with ICE, instantly sending an alert to the contacts they’ve entered, along with their location and a message.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, Diana and other advocates for the immigrant community have been working to create an easy-to-use mobile application that allows users to update their information at any time and keeps it confidential, since it is not stored in the cloud.
In the mobile app, a notice states that, for security reasons, when the red "send alert" button is pressed, "the emergency plan will be deleted."
The organizations reported that Ready Now is being used by immigrant communities, advocates, and legal response teams, amid the growing importance of public-interest technology in defending civil liberties.
Related: Where can I find organizations that provide legal assistance to immigrants in North Carolina?
For further information
The Ready Now mobile app is in six languages, including Spanish and English, for iPhones and Android phones. To stay up to date about the app, you can visit the Human Rights First website.
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