Trump's video games are no laughing matter

If you’re looking for a laugh, the official White House video game portal is definitely not the place to find it.

While the Trump administration managed to lose its headline "Build the Wall" game to a swift copyright slap from The Tetris Company, the digital platform is still up and running. And for civil rights advocates, the remaining lineup isn't just bad policy—it’s a deeply disturbing look at how this administration views vulnerable human beings.

The Tetris Company made it clear that the gaming corporation it was not involved in the creation of and was opposed to the politics behind the White House game.

“At Tetris, we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them,” the company wrote in a social media statement on Friday.

“P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously,” it added for good measure.

If you thought "Build the Wall" was out of line, the most toxic piece of digital media, "Rio Run," remains on Arcade.gov. This one takes the dehumanization of immigrants to an entirely new level.

Gamifying human misery

For communities of color who are tired of being used as political punchlines, "Rio Run" is a slap in the face. It’s a cynical rip-off of the classic game Snake, but instead of eating apples, the player controls a pixelated character meant to look like Donald Trump patrolling the Rio Grande.

The goal? Chase down black and brown 8-bit sprites representing migrants. Every time you catch one, they are transformed into orange prison jumpsuits to rack up your "deportation high score."

The rest of the site isn't much better, serving up a bizarre cocktail of policy trolling and vanity projects:

• "Supply Line:" A knockoff of the 1980s classic arcade game Tapper, where players aggressively trash school lunch food that doesn't meet "Make America Healthy Again" rules.

• "Trump Savings Tycoon:":  A basic cash-grab simulator where players literally catch falling diamonds and money bags to fill up a "Trump Account."

• "Flappy Bill:" A Flappy Bird clone featuring an eagle trying to dodge obstacles to fly legislation down the National Mall.

"Stop playing games with Llves"

Civil rights leaders, immigration advocates, and community organizers aren't letting this digital theater slide. They are calling out the portal for what it really is: a psychological tool designed to strip away empathy and desensitize the public to state-sanctioned violence.

Border defense activists have been quick to point out the dark irony. Leaders from groups like the Frontera Federation released scathing statements, noting that the administration has been playing games with real human lives for years, and now they’ve quite literally turned that cruelty into a smartphone app.

The gamification of immigration enforcement erases the complex, painful realities that AAPI immigrants navigate every day:

• Thousands of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian Americans originally arrived in the US as refugees escaping war and violence. Decades later, many face mandatory deportation due to old legal convictions, returning them to trauma they spent lifetimes trying to survive.

• Being deported often means exiled flight to countries individuals left as infants or young children—places where they may not speak the language, have zero family connections, and lack basic support structures.

View from the edge: Tech giants need to find a spine

The big question now is whether other massive gaming companies will follow the lead of Tetris.

Because Arcade.gov openly steals the visual aesthetics, logos, and mechanics of legendary gaming systems, activists are turning up the heat on corporate giants like Microsoft, Sega, Sony, and Nintendo. The message from the community is clear: if Tetris can stand up for its intellectual property and refuse to let its brand be weaponized for hate, these multi-billion-dollar conglomerates can do the exact same thing.

Meanwhile, community leaders and lawmakers are reminding the public not to lose sight of the bigger picture. While the White House wastes taxpayer time and digital real estate building arcades to troll its critics, real families are still dealing with the crushing weight of inflation and real-world global crises.

Turning enforcement into points-based entertainment dangerousely desensitizes the public—especially younger audiences—to human suffering, further stoking hostility against immigrant communities.

Turning mass deportation into an 8-bit playground might win applause at a rally and give some chuckles to white supremacists, but out here in the real world, the human cost is no game.

To the CEOs of Microsoft, Sega, Sony, and Nintendo: We're watching.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.

Pricing Out the American Dream: How a proposed $100K fee threatens AAPI tech and healthcare futures

ALPHABET WORKERS UNION

Google employees protest proposed H-1B fees at tech corporation headquarters.

A devastating proposal from the Department of Homeland Security threatens to shut the door on the next generation of talented workers from Asia. 

Under a new rule published by the Department of Homeland Security on August 25, 2026, US employers would be forced to pay a staggering $103,265 fee for every cap-subject H-1B visa petition. While pitched as an administrative shift, its burden falls overwhelmingly on the AAPI community — threatening to sever the vital pipeline of skilled workers, international students, and healthcare professionals moving from Asia to the United States.

H-1B workers are foreign workers with temporary approval to work in the US in jobs that require specialized skills or knowledge.

A direct blow to Asian immigrants

The math behind the proposal paints a stark picture for Asian communities. Out of the 85,000 annual H-1B visas awarded through the lottery cap, the vast majority go to foreign national workers from Asia. 

Two Asian nations make up over 83% of all H1-B visas. Indian professionals secure approximately 71% of all approved H-1B visas. Chinese nationals account for roughly 12% of approvals.

Imposing a six-figure price tag on sponsorship places an unprecedented barrier in front of tens of thousands of Asian workers striving to build their lives and careers in America.

The Trump regime's short-sighted policies could benefit other countries and the US could lose its leadership role in tech and health research to nation's eagar to scoop up the workers. China, South Korea and Canada are already revamping their immigration policies to woo the skilled workers and students.

Tech startups and recent grads priced out

For decades, the H-1B visa has been a launchpad for top international students transitioning from US universities into tech careers. Historically, filing fees ran between $2,000 and $5,000—a manageable investment for growing firms. A $103,265 upfront fee fundamentally changes that dynamic.

• The F-1 Student Trap: International students on F-1 visas who are living in the U.S. and working on Optional Practical Training (OPT) are not exempt from this fee when applying for their first H-1B cap visa. Companies will struggle to justify paying over $100,000 to hire entry-level graduates, effectively pricing fresh talent out of the market.
  
  
• Starving the Startup Engine: Small businesses and Asian-led tech startups rarely have six figures to spend on a single lottery entry they might not even win.
  
  
• Accelerating Brain Drain: Fearing closed doors in the U.S., top Indian and Chinese tech talent is increasingly heading to countries like Canada, the UK, and Australia, where immigration pathways remain predictable and affordable.
  
  

The benefit of skilled workers coming to the US is best exemplified by the program's impact on Silicon Valley. Tech leaders who came to the US under the H1-B program include: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Zoom CEO and Founder Eric Yuan and Tesla's Elon Musk.

Crushing healthcare in underserved communities

While headlines focus on Silicon Valley, the healthcare industry faces a severe crisis under this policy. Hundreds of community hospitals, local clinics, and private medical networks depend on foreign-born physicians and researchers—many from South and East Asia—to fill critical labor shortages.

Foreign medical graduates, particularly from India, play a critical role in staffing clinics in low-income and rural areas. Forcing local healthcare systems to absorb a $100,000-plus fee per provider threatens to leave essential medical positions unfilled.

Specialized biostatisticians, lab technicians, and clinical researchers keeping U.S. labs running will face reduced sponsorship, slowing down critical medical breakthroughs.

Who Is Exempt — and Who Isn't?

To be clear, the proposed fee is strictly aimed at first-time cap-subject petitions.

Current H-1B holders applying for simple extensions or transferring to a new employer will not be subject to the $103,265 fee. Cap-exempt employers—such as universities and non-profit research institutions—are also spared.

Anyone entering the H-1B lottery for the first time, including international students (F-1) and foreign workers currently residing in the US.on other non-immigrant visas (such as L-1 or TN), will face the full financial penalty.

The public now has until September 24, 2026, to log official feedback during the 30-day DHS comment period.

Legal challenges are already mounting. A coalition of 20 states—led by California, Massachusetts, New York, Washington, Illinois, and New Jersey—alongside business advocacy groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, are preparing court actions to strike down the rule. 

Opponents argue that executive agencies lack the constitutional authority to impose what amounts to a massive corporate tax, while warning of irreparable economic harm to state economies, university ecosystems, and community healthcare networks.

View from the edge

“As the world’s fourth largest economy, California knows that when skilled talent from around the world joins our workforce, it drives our state forward. President Trump’s illegal $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary — and illegal — financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services, exacerbating labor shortages in key sectors,” said California's Attorney General Bonta, who along with the attorneys general of 20 states, successfully sued the 2025 order from the President.

The 2026 visa fee proposed by the DHS is devastating for all states, including California, and threatens the quality of education, healthcare, and other core services available to our residents.

For example, the United States faces a nationwide teacher shortage and in the 2024-2025 school year, 74% of school districts in the U.S. reported having trouble filling open positions, particularly in special education, physical sciences, ESL or bilingual education, and foreign languages.

Educators are the third-largest occupation for H-1B visa holders, with nearly 30,000 educators on the visas, and nearly a thousand colleges and universities employ hundreds of H-1B personnel to support their research and education missions. Because K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are generally government or non-profit entities, they are incapable of absorbing an additional $100,000 for each H-1B hire.

Nearly 17,000 H-1B visas went to workers in medicine and health occupations in the 2024 fiscal year, and half of those were physicians and surgeons. Without foreign-trained physicians, the United States is projecting a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. There will not be enough doctors to care for older adults, many of whom suffer increased rates of chronic disease and have other complex medical needs. In California, access to specialists and primary care providers in rural areas is already extremely limited and is projected to worsen as physicians retire and these communities struggle to attract new doctors.

If the proposed fee is approved by the DHS after the comment period these affected institutions and industries will be forced to operate with inadequate staffing or divert funding away from other important programs to cover expenses.

“The Trump Administration thinks it can raise costs on a whim, but the law says otherwise," said Bont, whose lawsuit agaist the 2025 presidential mandate was upheld by the federal courts.

For the AAPI community, the outcome of this fight will define whether America remains a land of opportunity for global talent or draws the curtain on the immigrant dream.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.