According to EDT member, Brett Stalbaum,  since the original walkingtools software was developed pre-iPhone and pre-App store, the team had to develop a way for putting software onto the phone.   Most of the java phones, Stalbaum explains, were locked down.  By locking down the phone, cell phone carriers could keep users from accessing the capabilities of their phones, specifically the GPS functionality.  However, the team could work around this problem by buying Nokia phones without the locked down version of the operating system.   

By the time the team was developing the Transborder Immigrant Tool, the Motorolla i455 phone was available and considerably less expensive. 

A cellphone carrier locking an owner away from the functionality of their phone seems unfortunately parallel to the way the State situates the immigrant against the border.  Further, as Stalbaum points out, to hack the system, the team drew upon the affordances of the international system of mobile phones.   The parallels continue.