News Channel 3
There's a controversial new computer game where people take the role of illegal immigrants. It's called "Iced" and its growing popularity is at the heart of the immigration debate. Is this game educational or dangerous?
The goal of the game is to run away from Federal agents before being thrown in prison and beaten.
The computer game's makers say it educates people about how life is unfair for undocumented workers.
This is not the usual computer game. This is "Iced," where you walk around a city playing as an illegal immigrant- trying to avoid getting thrown in prison and deported.
In real life, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement rounded up and deported 30 Cathedral City residents last year. In the computer game, they are portrayed as the "bad guys" who beat and abuse immigrants.
ICE agents say that "regrettably it trivializes the issues." Palm springs immigration attorney Karan Kler has a mixed opinon about "Iced."
"I personally would not endorse the game for the fact that Americans would like to see our laws not broken," said Kler. "We would like to give the proper social justice and equal constitutional rights to everybody who is in the United States, but nevertheless, we would like to see people not go out of the way to break our laws."
The player has a choice of multiple immigrants, from a Mexican teen looking for a job to a Ukrainian student with an expired visa. The work visa issues are the focus of the local Minuteman Project chapter.
Co-founder Chris Simcox said, "Right now we have over 600,000 people who have entered this country legally through visas and have disappeared through the shadows. So our government has failed the American people on so many levels. That's why we're taking a no compromise stance."
Games like these are a new wave in programming; free educational games designed to raise awareness on social issues.
The player soon finds out that without proper immigration paperwork life has difficult decisions. Should an illegal immigrant report a crime they've witnessed? Should they trust the military to make their life better? And if they end up in prison awaiting a deportation hearing, do they get any legal rights?
Kler added, "They set out to do a very fantastic job of educating American society of what the life of an immigrant entails and the perils that lies within it. You can make one mistake and not mail something, as an attorney, and that mistake can cost you basically his complete life and you can have the whole family, small minor children, deported."
Educational tool or dangerous message of fear? Either way, as a free and easy download - "Iced" could be finding its way to your family's computer soon.
To find out more, "Iced" is available for download for Windows and Mac computers at www.icedgame.com.
Source: http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=7923643&nav=9qrx