Furor Raised Over New Illegal Immigrant Video Game
Game Plots 5 Illegal Teenagers Against ICE Agents
Reporting
Marcia Kramer NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The rules are simple: keep a low profile, don't steal, and most importantly, steer clear of immigration officers.
No, it's not the plotline of the latest action thriller, it's the object of a new video game that's stirring up quite a bit of controversy.
"Beware, there are immigration officers out to get you at every turn," players are instructed. The name of the game, "ICED," is a double-entendre acronym, which in this case, stands for "I Can End Deportation." It pits five teenage characters against another "ICE" in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
"The aim of the game is trying to figure out how to keep your freedom, how to navigate a very complicated and unfair set of laws to be able to remain a free person in the United States," says Malika Dutt of Breakthrough, an international human rights organization that's putting out the game.
Creators of the game say it's based on the 1996 immigration laws that increased the list of punishable offenses.
"It shows people who don't know much about immigration how unjust it is to be an immigrant," says Daniel Laverde, one of 100 New York City high school students who helped develop the video game.
Supporters think sending a message through a video game is a great idea, but there are some that think it makes a joke of a very serious issue.
"I think that this game reduces the problems of illegal mass immigration to a joke," says Joanna Marzullo of New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement. "It inculcates our suggestible youth with a sense of sympathy for illegal aliens -- trespassers who should not be in our country to begin with."
But pro-immigration groups disagree, saying the game could create intelligent and appropriate chatter. "I think this game could really be a useful tool to help people think about what the current immigration system is like," says Norman Eng of the New York Immigration Coalition.
While it is of course only a game, federal immigration agents say they're opposed to anything that makes it more difficult for them to do their job.
ICED is set to be released next month.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers in Albany continued their efforts to stop Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. State Republicans introduced a bill that would require a Social Security number before a New York driving permit is issued.
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