Over the previous yr, Karla Reyes and her staff at Anima Interactive have visited the US-Mexico border twice to interview migrants and humanitarians. As soon as a month, Reyes interviews migrants remotely by way of video calls. She’s spoken to dozens. They arrive from Latin America, but additionally South Asia, the Center East, and Africa, every with a shared aim: to cross into the US in quest of security.
In January, hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of migrants out of the blue acquired discover that their appointments with US Customs and Border Safety—the company that may assist them acquire asylum—had been canceled. The administration shut down the CBP One app that enables migrants to use for asylum. It was the primary of many roadblocks the brand new administration would erect in entrance of these in search of to immigrate to America.
“At a moment’s notice, the course of their lives has been altered again,” Reyes says. “These are people who have been waiting as long as years.”
For Reyes, it solely strengthened the sense of urgency round her staff’s present mission: a crowdfunded recreation known as Take Us North about migrants making the journey throughout the border. “Even though the game isn’t released yet, we are thinking critically about how we can still continue to share information, tackle disinformation, and share resources with our community,” she says.
One of many greatest misconceptions about migrants, Reyes says—one she hopes the sport will assist appropriate—is the story of why they go away their properties for the US. “The general public often gets this narrative that migrants are mostly trying to come to the US purely for economic opportunity,” she says. “The reality is that the majority of the migrants that I’ve interviewed do not want to leave their homes. Most of them are fleeing persecution and violence. They’re leaving behind everything that they love, but they don’t have another choice.”
Anima plans to launch Take Us North in late 2026 or early 2027, at which level the circumstances migrants face could possibly be much more stark than those they’re confronted with now.
In late February, the Division of Homeland Safety claimed that “in a single month under President Trump more than 20,000 illegal aliens were arrested.” Extra arrests are certain to come back because the administration makes an attempt to ramp up deportations. In line with a current Washington Submit report, greater than 1 million migrants admitted to the US throughout President Joe Biden’s tenure might face an expedited elimination. Migrants who’ve been arrested within the US face more and more harmful situations except for simply deportation, together with imprisonment on the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Heart in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. An asylum seeker’s journey is rarely simple, however in 2025 it’s an more and more horrifying prospect.
Take Us North—a narrative-driven, adventure-survival recreation about migrants touring by the Sonoran desert—is making an attempt to each foster empathy and lift consciousness about “issues that are unfortunately often reduced in mainstream media to statistics or divisive rhetoric,” Reyes says. Many migrants don’t need to go away their properties, however are pressured to, whether or not it’s due to violence, persecution, or excessive poverty. Others, Reyes says, have been kidnapped and are unable to return house. “These are innocent and honest people who have just been in unfortunate circumstances,” she says.
