“Waze for Ice Emigration Rids” is speaking

Cilest, 30, who was born in the United States for immigrant fathers from Mexico, is the Creator of the People on the Paper, and is a central, decentralized and free group that tracks and the maps of the actual ice scenes submitted by the audience. (For its safety, Gizmodo uses a synonym for the real name of Celtic.) The project works as a kind of “waze for emagation raides”, which was designed to not direct traffic, but to save lives, provide warnings, and increase awareness about immigration enforcement operations throughout the United States

Celeste, who works full -time, chose to remain unknown. After she shared the accounts of tendencies such as Libs of Tiktok and Wall Street Apes her face and X handle, she received a flood of online harassment, including threats. These accounts were accused of helping criminals, a charge that she and people deny them.

Movement of concern for her safety, Cilest does not reveal the place where she currently lives (although she confirmed that she was no longer in California). In the heart People are on papers It is a voluntary network that includes about 45 people, including teachers, technology workers, retirees, parents at home and unemployed organizers. Together, they play a major role in alerting weak societies to potential ice raids, and efforts that may face increased scrutiny and even legal risks. People on leaves are just one example of how to use digital tools, anonymous, strategic use, and with intent to reshape what appears to be under control and pressure.

We asked Selst 13 questions about the risks, motives, mechanics and the future of the project, and why do you continue to do this work despite the threats. The interview was conducted over the phone.

Gizmodo: How did you get involved with people on the leaves?

Celeste: This organization, this team, was established in January, because I saw it as a need for it on Tiktok. I was publishing immigration videos with information on Tiktok, and I came across one of the creators, who was publishing a screenshot of the Notes application behind it, using the green screen feature on Tiktok, and it was just a list of places that people saw the ice it was reported to, and she was getting hundreds of reports. Therefore, I told her, “Why don’t I help you, depict all the reports you get? Let’s work together.”

Therefore, we started chatting on this topic. Give me all the information I need to start using Google Maps. As you know, I thought it might be a good place to start. Then I took off. More than that, more people started to provide them, send me messages about their advice, and contact me with a different creator and ask me if I wanted to help. I said, “definitely.” Then we looked for the tools that allowed users to provide models with sites on the map, and we encountered padletAnd we said, well, let’s try it; Knowing if it works, and the rest is the date. It has happened somewhat.

Gizmodo: When I saw him take off, what across your mind at that stage?

CelesteI saw a need. I did not plan this. In January, I didn’t think I would be cultivating the follow -up. I didn’t think I would get calls from journalists. I didn’t think any of this would happen. It was not my goal. I did not start doing this. Again, I just saw a need for that, and my medicine is behind all of this is that I am from a family of immigrants. I think this country was built on the back of immigrants. I think we did not cross the border. We crossed the borders, especially for people who are of Mexican origin and indigenous people, and I do not agree with immigration policies in this country.

Gizmodo: Can you explain your background?

CelesteMy family from Mexico. I was born here, so I am a naturalized citizen, a citizen of the National Council here in the United States, however, I have family members who are affected by these policies. I have seen people criminalizing or being targeted because of their migration. And I think it is wrong.

Gizmodo: I said, personally, who was affected by immigration policies. Do you mean that you know and deported people?

CelesteCertainly. I have friends who went to primary school. I came across that I was born here. They happened to be brought when they were really young, and we grew up in the same city, the same school.

Even if they were more intelligent than me, even if they were more dedicated to school than me, they were always difficult for them to find a job, to pay for their high education. They were always more difficult than me, and the only reason is that my father was here, and I was born here.

After that, I have the family members who were deported. I have family members who tried to cross the United States and have been returned. I have, as you know, many family and friends who are directly affected by this.

Gizmodo: What do you want them to know when you do something like this?

CelesteI think, my message to uncomfortable people is that: First, I am sorry. I hope that as a citizen in this country, I can do more.

I understand why they want to be here. It is for a better life, for a better future, for the American dream that has been sold to them.

Gizmodo: What do you say to Americans who say that the people here illegally must be deported?

CelesteWe are all human beings at the end of the day. Unless you are the indigenous population, you were not born here. Your grandparents have not been established here or born here. We have all immigrated here in one way or another. Two. If it is easy to become legally to come to this country, in itself. If it is easy to obtain documentation. People had already done so. The process of becoming a citizen in the United States is difficult. People work tirelessly for decades to try to gain their nationality here, or even earn their permanent residence. They never get it. This is because the operations, laws, requirements and the immigration system as a whole are very difficult to move.

Gizmodo: It seems that you have been overcome by two conservative social media accounts, Libs of Tiktok and Wall Street Apes.

CelesteFortunately, I had not been disposed of in a way that people found as I live or found my full name as I could say. Libs of Tiktok attacked me on Twitter, along with Apes Wall Street. (Libs of Tiktok or Wall Street Apes did not respond to the Gizmodo request for comment.) Someone, wallets, I found my Tiktok account, sent to them, then bombed that information; Try fake reports, so we put moderate, right? We were attacked by a robot, and we were in a situation where we were repeatedly prevented IP. Then, as you know, they register with one IP one container, and the cat and mouse game were. But at the end of the day, I knew that they would be tired or bored, and that they would move. This is exactly what happened, and I assume, at some point, if they hunted one of them again, they will try it again.

This motivates us only, because if there are conservative people who disagree with what we do, then he tells us that they believe that what we do is a threat to the opinion that they carry, and this means that we do something correct, in my opinion.

As for physical safety, especially when I was receiving all hate messages, I was worried. I do not have a registered firearm or anything, but I thought it was a time to buy a firearm and registration in the end. I did not. It contradicts my philosophy, but this is always something at the back of my head.

Gizmodo: Are you concerned about your family’s safety?

CelesteI am concerned that they will one day discover who I am, and thus they will find who is my family. I had very long conversations with my family on this topic. We have talked about online safety and safety personally. So we took the appropriate precautions to try to alleviate this as much as possible. For example, I cleaned all my social media once I had 10,000 followers. I have passed on Instagram, on Facebook to download any posts that define information, and may show where I am, where to live, where I work, all these things.

Gizmodo: Does the employer know about your invitation?

CelesteI have close co -workers who know I do this. I am trying not to be very open about this, because I love maintaining my working life and my political life at this stage separate.

Gizmodo: How do you make sure that the reports sent to people on the papers are reliable?

CelesteWe have criteria that we follow to present. If we spread each presentation, it will be unwanted. We get footage of Facebook posts that only say ICE in Oklahoma. This is not useful for anyone, right? So we follow the so -called greeting in many of the invitation organizations. Use this what you want: size, activity, location, uniform, time, date and equipment they have. We leave the equipment because, for me, this is part of the uniform. But we want the exact location, if possible, the image or video will be great, and to fill as much information as possible.

Now, as much as the verification goes, we check a very serious vision, and we will never say that something has been confirmed unless we trust (…) We do not want to spread fear. So each report will have a single statement that says this is a potential ice vision, but it has not been verified. “

Gizmodo: Since the beginning of the protests in Los Angeles, have you noticed an increase in the reports you receive?

CelesteWe definitely had an increase. We had an increase in reports that begin in May,

We started with a lot of reports, such as more than 900, 700 and 800, then decreased dramatically in early February, then continued to decrease steadily in March and April, and on May 4, we saw more activity began to appear, because that was the first major operation that happened in Massachusetts. Since then, the number of reports has been climbing slowly and higher. (…)

We expect more activity as tensions continue between the public and the administration, and we always cooperate with people.

Gizmodo: The supervisor appears to be the main role. What does the supervisor do?

Celeste: This is exactly. If we are able to verify the information, the mutual reference with new sources, make sure there is nothing inappropriate, and try to identify agents. We received some mysterious information, but based on the evidence of context, we can know the location of the site. Again during the winter season, we received reports from the north, and we knew that it was snowfall, and we received reports without any snow on the ground, so we can easily tell that this report is inaccurate. Therefore, it is a type of mini investigation.

Gizmodo: How do people connect you, and how long will the project exist?

CelesteThey can DM Me on Tiktok (Celestiedablestie), on Instagram (CELESTIDABESTIE). Almost six months have passed since this began. I had no time to think about the future. I expect to do other things: invitation, education, combating misinformation and misleading. There are a lot of things we can do. I think it is bad for this tool to be widely used. This means that people are afraid.