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Interactively Addressing Immigration

Published on October 2, 2008

By Kidane John Yohannes

Of the many things video games are accused of promoting these days, information about immigration issues is not a common one. Breakthrough, an international nonprofit organization, which uses media and popular culture to highlight social issues, is using the popular and interactive medium to address immigration issues as well as to educate people about them.

Many immigrants in America, both documented and undocumented, continue to face strict detention and deportation guidelines that are disproportionately stacked against them. In 1996, new immigration laws passed expanding the crimes that can result in detention or deportation. Minor infractions, such as shoplifting, that would once mean a fine or community service can now equal time in a detention facility or a hasty deportation without judges being able to consider the circumstances of each case. A new video game from Breakthrough addresses the immigration debate head on in a downloadable game titled ICED.

According to Mallika Dutt, executive director of Breakthrough, the mission statement of ICED is to "show how unfair immigration laws deny due process and human rights to a large segment of the population." In doing this, ICED also seeks to dispel myths as well as educate players about immigration issues. Judging from player feedback it seems to be effective. "People seem to believe that it is easy to become a legal immigrant...the attitude is - if you're illegal, it's because you did not fill out your paperwork properly or you did not try," says Dutt. "ICED really is an eye opener to how difficult it is to become a legal resident and how few rights non-citizens have."

However, there is at least one potential concern as to how effective a video game can be in combating the lack of education of immigration laws. For example, Stacey Harris, an event planner in Charlotte, NC, enjoyed the game but pointed out that "it seems like the target audience that would benefit the most from learning about immigration issues wouldn't necessarily be the same audience that would enjoy playing video games." It is true that this would have been a legitimate pitfall for a game like ICED years ago, but with the demographic of video gamers steadily expanding, it is no longer a concern. According to the Entertainment Software Association 65% of American households play computer or video games. When you factor in that 40% of all game players are women and that in this year alone 26% of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, you realize that the ICED can reach a highly diverse and sizeable demographic.

ICED, which within the game stands for "I Can End Deportation," is also the acronym for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, the department within Homeland Security that is responsible for enforcing immigration laws and the deportation of all removable aliens from the United States. Within the game, players take control of one of five immigrants who must escape the clutches of the ICED agents. As you make your way through the city environment, you are faced with moral choices ranging from the opportunity to steal a car to the opportunity to buy bootleg DVDs off of street vendors. These moral choices, just as in real life, could mean a speedy deportation for some.

Each of the playable character scenarios are based on an amalgam of real life situations. Using actual immigrant stories such as Suki, the Japanese student who broke one of the requirements of his student visa, to Marc, the war veteran from Haiti who could fight for the U.S. armed forces, but faced deportation for a minor infraction. As lead game designer Heidi Boisvert explains, "Breakthrough sought partnerships with community organizations like Families for Freedom and [the] CAIR Coalition as well as lawyers and former detainees to make sure the experience and facts we represent in the game are accurate." As players continue in the game, progress is made by not only avoiding ICED agents, but also by answering myth or fact questions about immigration. "If the player answers all the myth and fact questions correctly and manages not to make any ill decisions, he/she has the chance to earn a green card if they can avoid the constantly spawning immigration officer(s) for 7 seconds, this, like a legal pathway to citizenship, is, however, very difficult."

The downloadable game, which was developed over the course of two years, began with Boisvert and her co-designer working with a diverse team. "Natalia and I worked with over 100 high school students to concept the game, beginning with very analogue floor plans...in addition, a graphic designer, sound designer and programmer were hired to bring the project to fruition."

In all, there were two major challenges that the team had to overcome as Boisvert explains, "the first was that Natalia, my co-designer, and I never made a video game. So we taught ourselves all of the tools in the process of designing the game. And the second was integrating all of the feedback and ideas around such a complex and loaded issue in a way that was accessible, but did not water down the content."

Following the success of ICED, Breakthough is hard at work on their future endeavors to continue the conversation on immigration laws through popular media. "We are currently working on two new projects," Boisvert explains, "the first is an investigative web-based experience that looks at detention conditions, the wave of death in detention, and the proliferation of detention centers in the U. S. The second project is a dystopian graphic novel that explores the lack of DHS [Department of Homeland Security] accountability, and zeroes in on the rise of raids, citizen backlogs, and detention conditions."

For those who wish to become involved, you can start by joining the over 70,000 individuals who have already downloaded ICED at icedgame.com for their MAC or PC. In addition to building awareness, there are also many opportunities to become active in the immigration issues. "It is really important to let all our elected officials know that when we deny due process and human rights to some people, we put all of our freedoms at risk", Dutt says, "we need to ensure that our next President puts due process and human rights at the top of their agenda so that American values can be restored to immigration policy."

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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