MAY 2026
Early warning system · Community power intelligence
Data centers are arriving fastest in the counties that have already lost hospitals, where maternal mortality and child poverty are highest, and where care workers earn poverty wages. This is not coincidence. The same political economy that stripped these communities of vital infrastructure is now extracting their land, water, and power for AI.

Whoever sees it coming first has leverage. Developers know where they're going to build months before communities do. This map is designed to close that gap. The fights that have won, won early.
This tool documents community opposition as a public record. At a time when data center opposition has been characterized by some law enforcement as extremism, that record matters.
If blocking fails — minimum demands
When you can't stop it, make them pay for what they're taking
This tool provides general research and organizing intelligence, not legal advice. Consult an attorney before taking legal action.
Sources & methodology
What this map shows, where the data comes from, and what it doesn't cover
InfraWatch maps community power intelligence — not a neutral survey. Every data layer was chosen because it illuminates either extractive infrastructure pressure or the care economy conditions that make communities vulnerable to it.

This tool maps where AI infrastructure is being sited — and names what that infrastructure is for. Data centers produce the compute that powers surveillance systems, border enforcement technology, predictive policing, and military AI contracting. The political economy driving data center siting is inseparable from the political economy driving surveillance expansion: the same communities losing hospitals and care infrastructure are bearing the resource costs of AI systems increasingly used to police, monitor, and detain them. The ICE detention layer in this tool documents one node of that connection explicitly. Flock cameras, Palantir contracts, and CBP border AI are part of the same loop — not mapped here, but not separate from what is.

Where data is approximate, incomplete, or bounded by suppression rules, we say so here.
Community resistance & wins
Active fights (red/amber signals)
Compiled from local news reporting, public records, community organization communications, and state legislature databases. Research period: 2024–May 2026.
Not a systematic survey. Gaps reflect research capacity, not absence of organizing. Counties not shown may have active fights we haven't documented.
Community wins & moratoria (green dots)
Local government meeting minutes, ordinance text, news reporting. Each entry verified against at least two sources.
Status current as of May 2026. Moratoria expire; legal challenges may reverse wins. Check county government websites for current status.
Proactive zoning (teal dots)
Planning department records, local news. Includes townships and municipalities that adopted rules before any specific project was proposed.
Proactive zoning varies widely in strength — some ordinances are binding, others advisory. Panel text notes where details are limited.
State legislative action
State legislature bill tracking (LegiScan, individual state sites), advocacy organization reporting, news coverage. 23 states tracked as of May 2026.
Legislative status changes rapidly. Bills listed as "active" may have died or advanced since last update.
Established data centers (black dots)
Data Center Knowledge, CBRE Data Center Trends, company announcements, local news. Capacity figures (MW) sourced from published developer announcements or analyst estimates.
MW figures are approximate. Operational status may have changed. Not a complete census of US data centers — focuses on counties where community organizing is active or likely.
2024 presidential vote
County-level margins
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; AP Election Results; state election board certified returns. All 3,142 US counties. Margin = Republican minus Democratic vote share in percentage points (positive = R, negative = D).
Connecticut uses electoral districts, not counties — displayed at approximate district boundaries. Alaska uses borough equivalents.
Maternity care access
Maternity care deserts (county-level)
March of Dimes, Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US, Report No. 4, September 2024. Categories: desert (no hospital/birth center offering OB care and no OB clinicians), low access, moderate access, full access.
This map covers only counties already in the resistance dataset (~60 counties), not all 3,142 US counties. Full county data is available directly from March of Dimes PeriStats. Classification is based on 2022 data.
Childcare deserts (county-level)
Center for American Progress, America's Child Care Deserts, 2023. Definition: fewer than one licensed childcare slot per three children under age 5.
Same coverage limitation as maternity care — resistance counties only, not full national coverage.
Maternal mortality rates
State maternal mortality rates
Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of CDC National Center for Health Statistics data, 2018–2022 aggregate (final data). Rates per 100,000 live births. National average: 23.2. Published July 2024. Commonwealth Fund, Maternal and Child Mortality: How Do US States Compare Internationally?, October 2025, used for 2023 provisional data for California and Louisiana.
County-level data does not exist in public form. CDC suppresses county-level maternal mortality data for counties with fewer than 10 deaths (confidentiality) and fewer than 20 deaths (statistical reliability). Most counties have 0–5 maternal deaths per year. State rate applies to all counties shown within that state — a meaningful proxy because state policy (Medicaid, OB licensing, hospital regulation) largely determines outcomes. Data suppressed for 11 states with fewer than 20 deaths total. Racial disparities within states are documented but not mapped — Black maternal mortality nationally is 3–4× white maternal mortality.
Home care worker wages
State median hourly wages — home health & personal care aides
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024 release. SOC code 31-1120 (Home Health and Personal Care Aides). Reported via credenzahealth.com state-by-state table, which sources directly from BLS OEWS. National median: $17.36/hr ($36,120 annualized at full-time).
State-level medians mask significant within-state variation, particularly urban/rural divides. Does not capture informal care work, which is substantial and disproportionately performed by immigrant women. BLS OEWS excludes self-employed workers. Annual figure assumes 2,080 hours (40hr/week, 52 weeks) — many care workers are part-time or have irregular hours.
Medicaid expansion
State expansion status
Kaiser Family Foundation, Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions, March 2026. 40 states + DC have adopted full expansion. 10 states have not. Georgia classified as "partial" — Pathways to Coverage program requires 80 hours/month of qualifying activity; enrollment as of early 2026: ~4,300–11,600 vs. estimated 300,000–450,000 who would qualify under full expansion.
Federal policy is actively threatening expansion: work requirements for expansion states are scheduled to begin January 1, 2027. Oklahoma Republicans have proposed reversal mechanisms. This layer may be significantly outdated by late 2026 or 2027. Wisconsin's BadgerCare+ covers some low-income adults but does not use ACA federal matching funds — classified here as not expanded, per KFF convention.
Environmental justice burden
Frontline community designations (7 counties)
Each EJ designation is sourced individually. Key sources: EPA EJScreen (cumulative burden scores); American Lung Association State of the Air reports; NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice program documentation; Earthjustice and SELC litigation records; peer-reviewed health burden literature; community organization reports. See individual county panels for specific citations.
This is a documented sample, not a systematic EJ screening. Counties shown have active documented fights with named organizations and federal legal tools. Many additional counties bearing data center-related environmental burdens are not shown. EPA EJScreen and CDC PLACES offer national screening tools for identifying additional communities.
Indigenous / tribal sovereignty sites (5 counties)
Individual sources: Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (MIT Technology Review, KUNR/Mountain West News Bureau, 2025); Muscogee Nation (Mvskoke Media, Native News Online, ICT News, TIME, 2025–2026); Tonawanda Seneca Nation (ICT News, Honor the Earth, 2026); Pueblo communities / Doña Ana (NM community reporting); Shoshone-Paiute / Box Elder (On Point, Salt Lake Tribune, 2026).
This map shows 5 of at least 106 documented sites. Honor the Earth's Data Center Tracker documents proposed and operating data centers near or on Native lands nationally. This map shows depth where research is actionable — named tribes, specific water rights instruments, federal legal hooks. It is not a census. See Honor the Earth Data Center Tracker for the broader picture.
ICE immigration detention sites
Confirmed purchases, planned sites, operational facilities
Washington Post (December 2025 leaked planning documents); Associated Press (April 2026 warehouse purchase reporting); NPR / WABE / OPB (March 2026 community impact reporting); Georgia Public Broadcasting (Social Circle and Oakwood coverage, February 2026); El Paso Matters (Camp East Montana and Socorro reporting, 2025–2026); Maryland Attorney General press releases (January–April 2026); Michigan Attorney General press releases (February 2026); American Immigration Council analysis (March 2026); CalMatters (Kern County facilities, April 2026); ICE internal planning memo dated February 13, 2026 (published via Fox News).
This layer requires frequent updating. DHS Secretary Mullin paused new warehouse purchases in April 2026 pending review of contracts signed under Secretary Noem. Some "purchased" sites may face legal delays or cancellation. Some "planned" sites may have been abandoned. Romulus MI and Williamsport MD renovation work is on hold by court order as of May 2026. Merrillville IN warehouse owner stated it is not negotiating with federal officials. Status accurate as of May 2026 — verify current status before using in organizing contexts.
Child poverty
Child poverty rate (under 18)
Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program, 2023 estimates. Published December 2024. Metric: percent of children under age 18 below the federal poverty line. National average: 16.3%. Federal poverty line 2023: approximately $30,000 for a family of four.
Shown for approximately 70 counties on this map relevant to the resistance dataset — not full national coverage. Full county data for all 3,142 US counties available at census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe. Racial disparities in child poverty are substantial (Black child poverty ~26%, Native American ~28%) but are not broken out at county level here.
General methodology notes
What this map is
A community power intelligence tool built for resistance organizers, women's fund networks, and place-based organizations working at the intersection of extractive infrastructure, the care economy, and the surveillance state. Updated as new fights emerge and new data becomes available.
This is not a peer-reviewed dataset. It is a synthesis of public data, news reporting, and community organization intelligence. Errors are possible and corrections are welcomed. The selection of what to show reflects a political economy framework: where extractive infrastructure is arriving, care infrastructure is already missing or being stripped away — and the technology built from that extraction is being turned on the same communities. That framing is intentional, not neutral.
Author
Sara Keilholtz. Built May 2026. Built with Claude (Anthropic) as a coding and research assistant. AI ambivalent — a useful tool doesn't outweigh extraction, displacement, and disruption. This project holds the contradictions openly.
This tool documents community organizing as a public record, from zoning hearings to street protest. At a time when that opposition has been characterized by some law enforcement as extremism, that record matters.
Data last updated
Resistance data, legislative status, and detention sites: May 2026. Care infrastructure layers: 2024 (March of Dimes), 2024 (BLS OEWS), 2018–2022 (CDC/KFF MMR), March 2026 (KFF Medicaid). 2024 presidential vote: certified results, November 2024.
Care infrastructure data updates on varying cycles. BLS OEWS releases annually (May). March of Dimes releases annually (September). KFF Medicaid tracker updates as state decisions are made. CDC maternal mortality data lags 2–3 years.
Get in touch
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