Over the previous 12 months, Karla Reyes and her workforce at Anima Interactive have visited the US-Mexico border twice to interview migrants and humanitarians. As soon as a month, Reyes interviews migrants remotely through 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 objective: to cross into the US searching for security.
In January, hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of migrants all of the sudden obtained 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 searching for to immigrate to America.
“At a second’s discover, the course of their lives has been altered once more,” Reyes says. “These are individuals who have been ready so long as years.”
For Reyes, it solely strengthened the sense of urgency round her workforce’s present challenge: a crowdfunded sport referred to as Take Us North about migrants making the journey throughout the border. “Though the sport is not launched but, we’re pondering critically about how we are able to nonetheless proceed to share info, deal with disinformation, and share assets with our group,” she says.
One of many largest misconceptions about migrants, Reyes says—one she hopes the sport will assist right—is the story of why they depart their houses for the US. “Most of the people typically will get this narrative that migrants are largely making an attempt to return to the US purely for financial alternative,” she says. “The fact is that almost all of the migrants that I’ve interviewed don’t wish to depart their houses. Most of them are fleeing persecution and violence. They’re abandoning every part that they love, however they do not have one other alternative.”
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 beneath President Trump greater than 20,000 unlawful aliens had been arrested.” Extra arrests are positive to return because the administration makes an attempt to ramp up deportations. In keeping with a current Washington Put up 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 circumstances 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 sport about migrants touring by way of the Sonoran desert—is making an attempt to each foster empathy and lift consciousness about “points which can be sadly typically lowered in mainstream media to statistics or divisive rhetoric,” Reyes says. Many migrants don’t wish to depart their houses, however are compelled 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 harmless and sincere individuals who have simply been in unlucky circumstances,” she says.
