About the past Year, Karla Reyes and her team at Anima Interactive visited the US and Mexico border twice to interview migrants and humanitarians. Once a month, Reyes performs migrants remotely via video calls. She spoke to dozens. They come from Latin America, but also South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, each with a shared goal: to move to the US in search of safety.
In January, hours after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, thousands of migrants suddenly notified that their appointments with US Customs and Border Protection – the agency that would help them get asylum. The administration has closed the CBP OnePAPP that allows migrants to apply asylum. It was the first of many roadblocks that would set up the new administration before those who want to immigrate to America.
“At a moment’s notice, the course of their lives has changed again,” says Reyes. “These are people who have been waiting for years as years.”
For Reyes, it only reinforced the feeling of urgency around the current project of her team: a crowdfunded game called Take us north about migrants making the journey across the border. “Although the game has not yet been released, we think critically about how we can still continue to share information, tackle disinformation and share resources with our community,” she says.
One of the biggest misconceptions about migrants, says Reyes – one she hopes the game will help to fix – is the story of why they leave their homes for the US. “The general public often receives this narrative that migrants are mostly trying to come to the US for economic opportunities,” she says. “The reality is that the majority of the migrants I interviewed do not want to leave their homes. Most of them flee from prosecution and violence. They leave behind everything they love, but they have no choice. ‘
Anima plans to release Take us north At the end of 2026 or early 2027, the circumstances facing migrants can be even more sharp than those they are now confronted with.
At the end of February, the Department of Home Security claims that “in a single month under President Trump, more than 20,000 illegal strangers were arrested.” More arrests will certainly come as the administration tries to increase deportations. According to a recent Washington Post report, more than 1 million migrants recognized to the US during President Joe Biden’s tenure can face a faster removal. Migrants arrested in the US have increasingly dangerous conditions, apart from just deportation, including imprisonment at Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The journey of an asylum seeker is never easy, but in 2025 it is an increasingly frightening prospect.
Take us north-A narrative-powered, adventure-surviving play about migrants traveling through the Sonoran Desert-tried to promote empathy and raising awareness of “issues that are unfortunately often reduced in mainstream media to statistics or divisive rhetoric,” Reyes says. Many migrants do not want to leave their homes, but are forced to, whether due to violence, persecution or extreme poverty. Others, says Reyes, were kidnapped and can’t return home. “These are innocent and honest people who have just been in unfortunate circumstances,” she says.