In an extremely controversial move, Google has announced that the first beta of their new mapping program, Illegal Immigrant Maps (IIM), will be released invitation only sometime next month. With immigration being a hot topic in politics and the press, Google hopes to create a tool that could potentially be used by law enforcement and politicians to better gauge how severe the illegal immigration problem truly is.

As with their searching technology, Google refuses to release any details on how the new mapping program will work, saying they don’t want to give their competitors any advantages. They did say that it will be integrated into the current Google Maps application so that users can choose to display markers where illegal immigrants can be found.

Google reps do stress that the new technology will only show where illegal immigrants are located, not legal immigrants. This seems little comfort to much of the population, however, as just about every civil rights group is clamoring to come up with legal action to stop Google’s new technology. Home Depot is leading the charge, fearing that the maps could reveal a bit too much about the workers that set up shop outside their stores.

Tags: Google maps, illegal immigration