Phoenix man resumes development of app to alert people about immigration raids

PHOENIX — President Donald Trump’s new immigration policies have spurred a Phoenix man to resume development of an app that alerts people to immigration raids.

Celso Mireles — a child of illegal immigrants — said he began developing the Raid Alerts app a few years ago during former President Barack Obama’s time in office. However, he let it languish until the Trump administration announced plans to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants.

According to Motherboard, the app uses crowdsourcing to alert others to possible raids and that information is then vetted using news sources.

“The process is to crowdsource information [on raids] and verify it,” Mireles said. “If someone reports a raid, there has to be multiple verifications. Organizers from the immigrant community want to defend against trolls. Then the system will know and send a message to everyone in 10 to 20 mile radius.”

In addition to the alert, the app will also display a social media feed with more information about the possible raid.

However, there are some concerns about Raid Alerts. Crowdsourced information can be inaccurate and there is the possibility of the app being hacked.

Several companies have shown interest in helping Mireles develop the app.

Mireles said the app is at least three months away from launching.

KTAR’s Griselda Nevarez contributed to this report.

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