Data Siloing as Infrastructural Activism

The refugee support ecosystem in the U.S.-Mexico Borderplex is resource-scarce, dynamic, and transitional, requiring intensive information work. To address coordination challenges among the cross-sector sociotechnical community working at one of the largest ports of entry for asylum seekers, the county government of El Paso, TX, USA, has proposed a centralized information system for use by all refugee-serving organizations on the U.S. side of the border. However, stakeholder responses have varied, with some organizations approving, and others resisting the proposal. This research investigates the nuanced dynamics of information infrastructures among stakeholders from different refugee-serving organizations working in the Borderplex, explaining how they navigate pressures to centralize their information infrastructures amid myriad concerns while considering the costs of not doing so, particularly for the refugees. Through a combination of ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis, we explore why some of the organizations in the Borderplex are choosing to silo their data—in support of financial freedom, mission malleability, and maintaining privacy in a liminal context—as a form of infrastructural activism. Our findings contribute to discussions of non-use and deliberate disconnection, highlighting the complex political and practical dimensions of technology (non-)adoption.