This Programmer Wants to Use Your Phone to Fight ICE
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The Bottom Line
A programmer built StopICE.net, a text alert system with half a million users reporting real-time ICE enforcement locations.
How This Affects You
Undocumented immigrants and mixed-status families can receive advance warning of ICE operations to avoid arrest and family separation.
AI Summary
Sherman Austin, a 43-year-old programmer and longtime activist, created StopICE.net, a text-based alert system that crowdsources real-time reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and has grown to over half a million subscribers since launching in February 2025. The Trump administration has pressured Apple and Google to remove competing ICE-spotting apps from their stores, but Austin's web-based service survived the purge by design. Austin faces mounting threats—including death threats and suspected cyberattacks from federal agents—and believes Department of Homeland Security personnel are actively monitoring his operation, yet refuses to abandon the project despite the risk. His history of activism dating back to the early 2000s, including federal prosecution for hosting bombmaking material on a website, shapes his conviction that the government will eventually target him. Austin remains publicly defiant, saying "I'm right here. You have my name. You know where I live. If you want to do something, come do it."
What's Being Done
Sherman Austin operates StopICE.net as a crowdsourced alert system; the Trump administration pressured Apple and Google to remove competing ICE-spotting apps, but Austin's web-based service remains active.
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