Born in the US for a 30-year-old immigrant parents of Mexico, Celeste, is a manufacturer of people on papers, a decentralized and anonymous collective that tracks and maps the real-time ice view presented by the public. (For her safety, Gizmodo is using a synonym for the real name of Celeste.) The project acts like a kind of “veg for immigration raids”, which is not made for direct traffic, but to save life, offer warnings, offer warnings, and increase awareness about immigration enforcement operations across the US.
Celeste, which works full -time in it, has chosen to remain anonymous. The Right-Right accounts such as Tikokkok and Wall Street apps shared their face and X handle, they found flood of online harassment including dangers. These accounts have accused him of supporting criminals, an allegation that he refuses to strongly to the papers to the people.
Out of anxiety for her safety, Celeste is not revealing where she currently lives (although she confirmed that it is no longer in California). In between People on papers There is a volunteer network of about 45 people, including teachers, technical workers, retired people, home-living parents and unemployed organizers. Together, they play a central role in warning weaker communities to alert ice raids, efforts that can withstand investigation and even legal risk. People on the papers are just an example of how digital equipment, anonymous, strategically, and intentions, how they are re -shaping what is seen under the activity monitoring and pressure.
We asked Celeste 13 questions about the risks, motivations, mechanics and future of the project, and why she continues to work despite hazards. The interview was conducted by telephone.
Gizmodo: How did you join the papers with people?
Celeste: I made this organization, this team back in January, because I saw the need on Tikkok. I was posting a informative immigration video on Tiktok and I came to a manufacturer, who was posting a screenshot of his notes app behind him, using a green screen feature on Tikok, and it was just a list of places that people saw the snow that reported it, and she was receiving hundreds of reports. So, I told him: “Why don’t I help you, imagine all the reports you are getting? Let’s work together.”
Therefore, we started a conversation about it. He gave me all the information required to start using Google Maps. You know, I thought there could be a good place to start. Then it took off. Even more, more people began to submit, started sending messages about the tips that they had, and a separate manufacturer reached me and asked if I needed help. I said, ‘Sure.’ Then we searched for the tools that allowed users to present forms with places on a map, and we came across PedalAnd we said, okay, let’s try it; See what it works, and the rest is history. This happened in just one way.
Gizmodo: When you saw it down, what was your mind crossed at that point?
Celeste: I saw a need. I did not plan this. In January, I did not think I was going to develop a following. I did not think I would be receiving calls from reporters. I did not think that any of it would be. This was not my goal. I did not set to do so. Again, I only saw a need for it, and my inspiration behind all of them is that I am from the family of immigrants. I believe that this country is built behind immigrants. I believe that we did not cross the border. Seema has crossed us, especially for those who belong to the Mexican dynasty, and indigenous, and I disagree with the immigration policies of this country.
Gizmodo: Can you explain in detail on your background?
Celeste: My family is from Mexico. I was born here, so I am a natural citizen, who is a national board citizen in the US here and yet, I have family members who are influenced by these policies. I have seen that people are being criminal or targeted due to their immigration status. And I think it’s wrong.
Gizmodo: You said that you know, personally, which are influenced by immigration policies. Did you mean that you know those who were arrested and deported?
Celeste: Absolutely. I have friends with whom I went to primary school. I was just born here. When he was really young, he was brought, and we grew up in the same city, the same school.
Even if they were more clever than me, even if they were more devoted to me, they were always difficult to find a job to pay for their higher education. They were always going to be very difficult than me, and the only reason is that my parents were here, and I was born here.
And then, I have family members who have been deported. My family members are attempts to cross the US and have been sent back. I have, you know, a lot of family and friends who are directly affected by it.
Gizmodo: What do you want to know them when you do something like this?
Celeste: I think, my message to those who are unspecified, this is: First, forgive me. I wish that as a citizen of this country, I could do more.
I think why they want to live here. This is for a better life, for a better future, for the American dreams that they were sold.
Gizmodo: What do you say to Americans that are saying that people who are illegally here should be deported?
Celeste: We are all humans at the end of the day. As long as you are not indigenous, you were not born here. The establishment of your dynasty was not born here or here. We have all come in some form or in fashion. And two. If it was easy to become legal to come to this country, then per. If it was easy to document. People must have already done. The process of becoming citizens in America is purposefully difficult. People make tireless efforts for decades to try to earn their citizenship, or even earn their permanent residence status. And they never, they never get it. And this is because it is extremely difficult to navigate procedures, laws, requirements, immigration system as a whole.
GizModo: You were clearly doxy by the dress of two conservative social media accounts, tiktok and wall street apps.
CelesteLuckily, I have not been done in such a way that people have found where I live or as far as I can tell my full name has been found. Tikok’s dress attacked me on Twitter with Wall Street Apps. [Neither Libs of TikTok nor Wall Street Apes responded to Gizmodo’s request for comment.] Someone, a conservative, found my tiktok account, sent it, and then they exploded that information; Try to submit a fake report, so we established the moderate, right? We had a bot attack, and we were in a situation where we will repeatedly block IP. And then they, you know, sign up with a new container IP, and it was a cat and mouse game. But at the end of the day, I knew that they would get tired or bored, and they would move forward. And this is what happened, and I agree, at some point, if they again hold one of them, they will try it again.
This only inspires us more, because if there are orthodox people who disagree with what we are doing, it tells us that they believe that what we are doing is a threat to opinion that they take, and it means that we are doing something right, in my opinion.
For physical security, especially when I was receiving all the hate messages, I was worried. I have a registered gun or nothing, but I felt that it is a time for me to buy a gun and eventually be registered. I did not do that. It goes against my philosophy, but it is always something behind my head.
Gizmodo: Are you worried about your family safety?
Celeste: I am worried that one day they will know who I am, and so they will find who my family is. I have a very long conversation with my family about this. We have personally talked about security on internet and security. So we take proper care to try to reduce as much as possible. For example, as soon as I hit 10,000 followers on all my social media, scrubbing all my social media. I passed through my Instagram, my Facebook, which had to take any post in which information was identified, perhaps showing where I am from, where I live, where I work, all the stuff.
Gizmodo: Does your employer know about your advocacy?
Celeste: I have very close colleagues who know that I do so. I try not to be super open about this, because I like to keep my work life and my political life separate at this point.
Gizmodo: How do you make sure the reports sent to the people on the papers are reliable?
Celeste: We have standards that we do for a submission. If we post each submission, then it will be a complete junk. We get screenshots of Facebook posts which only call ice in Oklahoma. This is not useful for anyone, right? Therefore, we follow the salute method in many advocacy organizations for immigration. You want to use it: size, activity, location, uniform, time and date and the equipment with them. We leave the equipment, because, for me, it is part of uniform. But, we want an exact location, if possible, an image or video will be very good, and to fill as much information as possible.
Now, as far as the verification goes, we take verification of a vision very seriously, and we will never say something is confirmed unless it is an organization we trust (…) We do not want to spread fear. Therefore, there will be some kind of statement in each report that says it is a possible ice, but it has not been verified. ,
Gizmodo: Since the introduction of protests in LA, have you seen an increase in the reports received by you?
Celeste: We have definitely increased. We had increased the reports starting in May,
We started with a lot of reports, such as 900, 700, more than 800, and then it fell considerably in early February, and then it continued to fall continuously in March and April, and on 4 May, we saw that more activity was starting to pop up more, as it was the first major operation in Massachusetts. And since then, the number of reports is gradually climbing up and up. ,
We expect more activity because the tension between the public and the administration keeps increasing, and we are always recruiting people.
GizModo: It appears that the moderator is the lead role. What does a moderator do?
Celeste: This is exactly this. If we can verify the information, cross-referenceing with new sources, making sure that nothing is inappropriate, and is trying to identify what agents it is. We got some vague information, but based on the reference clues, we can find out where the location is. Back during the winter, we received a report from UP North, and we knew that it was snow, and we received a report without any snow on the ground, and so we can easily tell that this report is not accurate. So, it is like a mini investigation.
Gizmodo: How do people contact you, and how long the project will last?
CelesteIt has been almost six months since it started. I do not have time to think about the future. I hope to do other things: to compete with advocacy, education, misinformation, disintegration. There are many things that we can do. I think it’s a bad thing that this device is being used very heavy. This means that people are afraid.
