The White House launches a series of video games in which one can pursue and capture immigrants
The Tetris company has already dissociated itself from one of the games and has recalled that it takes copyright infringement "very seriously"
WashingtonThe Donald Trump administration has launched five retro-style video games to promote its agenda where, among other things, one can chase and capture immigrants. The White House is gamifying raids eight months after two U.S. citizens in Minnesota died at the hands of anti-immigration agents and shortly after ICE announced it will no longer publish the deaths of immigrants who die in detention centers.
Between January 1st and June of this year, at least 18 deaths have been reported in immigrant centers, a figure that is on track to exceed the 33 deaths recorded last year during the start of Trump's second term, which was the highest in two decades.
The video game for chasing immigrants is titled Rio run and is an imitation of the popular mobile game Snake. The difference is that here Trump runs across the screen capturing potential people attempting to cross the border. The game about building the wall, Build the wall, is an imitation of Tetris where the goal is to "protect the border from the approaching swarm."
A third game, Supply line,is focused on promoting the health and nutrition advice that the Secretary of Health, the anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy, has wrapped under the slogan "Make America healthy again" ("Make America healthy again", in English). Different foods appear on the screen and one must discard those that do not meet the MAHA criteria.
The other two games are set in Washington. In Flappy bill an eagle carries a bill across the National Mall. In Trumpsavings tycoon, the goal is to collect the money flying through the air and thus "fill the Trump accounts for your children". The Trump accounts (Trump accounts) are a measure launched by the president in which he offers $1,000 to every child born during his term.
The White House has shared the page where the games can be played, Arcade.gov, on its social media with a series of animations that mimic the loading screens of Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo. In one of the posts, the animation recreates the SEGA logo to include the acronym MAGA. The imitation of the arcade games has already sparked some reactions. The Tetris company has already issued a statement distancing itself from the recreation made by the White House, stating that it was not involved in its creation and that it takes copyright infringement "very seriously".
The most controversial of all, however, is the one that simulates the persecution of immigrants, which is real in Trump's United States. Civil rights and immigrant rights associations have denounced on repeated occasions the unsanitary conditions in which people are being held. The high rate of detentions has exceeded the maximum capacity of most centers and, in addition, numerous immigrants who have passed through there have reported food in poor condition, having to sleep on the floor with blankets due to a lack of beds, or even not having access to medicine.
Gabriel is one of the thousands of people who have passed through ICE detention centers. Last year he already reported to ARA that they gave him food in poor condition and that the center's guards refused to give him medicine to lower his fever. He also explained that the Louisiana center where he stayed, Alexandria, gave the impression of being overcrowded. When the man left the center, after six days, he had lost 4.5 kg.