Two retro-style games depicting migrant deportations and border-wall construction have drawn criticism from rights advocates.
The White House has released two retro-style video games focused on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including one that allows players to deport migrants who cross the Rio Grande and another centered on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The games, launched Thursday on the White House’s official website, have prompted sharp criticism from social groups and migrant advocates, who say they trivialize immigration enforcement policies that have involved detention, violence and deaths.
One of the games is modeled on the classic arcade game Snake. Players control a character representing Tom Homan, the U.S. president’s top immigration adviser, and collect people who have crossed the Rio Grande before deporting them.
A second game, titled “Protect the Border from the Incoming Horde,” is based on Tetris and tasks players with constructing a wall along the border with Mexico, a project promoted by Trump.
The releases come as the administration intensifies its program of migrant detention and deportation and seeks to normalize those policies.
Amérika García Grewal, co-director of the Texas-based nonprofit Frontera Federation, condemned the games. “I am disgusted. They have been playing with people’s lives for years, and now they are making a video game out of their actions,” García Grewal said. She added that those who designed the games “have lost sight of what it means to be human and to care about others.”
White House defends the games
The White House defended the initiative in a statement sent to AFP, saying the games “further highlight the contrast between a ‘fun’ and ‘successful’ culture and the dark socialist vision that Democrats have for America.”
The games were released amid other immigration-related communications from the administration.
The Department of Homeland Security recently published a video showing handcuffed Haitian migrants being deported after Washington revoked a status that had allowed them to remain legally in the United States.
Opponents of Trump described the video, which featured background music, as degrading and racist. The DHS, meanwhile, said it had arrested nearly 51,000 undocumented immigrants in August, a record figure.
The communications are part of a White House strategy that openly employs trolling on social media, using provocative content to generate outrage and achieve a viral effect.
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