Papers, Please, first released in 2013, was among the vanguard of indie games that felt like they had something to say, turning the simple act of processing paperwork into a pointed commentary on the political brutality of immigration. It was set in a fictional Soviet-esque country in 1982, which creator Lucas Pope used to amplify the painful decisionmaking of who to allow across the border—defy your authoritarian leaders and your family would go hungry; enforce the letter of the law, and you were turning away refugees who were pinning their hopes on a new life on your understanding and grace.
Papers, Please may have represented a specific point in time, but it is the game on my mind at this moment in time, as the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has held a Canadian traveler in a cement cell for days and "violently interrogated" a German man who has his American green card, while also deporting people en masse without due process.
