Mass. company draws fire for immigration game app

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston-based tech company is drawing fire from immigrant advocates for developing a game that allows users to drive a truck full of immigrants through the desert and try not to have them tossed out.

“Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration,” a proposed iPhone and iPad app by Owlchemy Labs, lets players navigate through the U.S-Mexican border over cliffs, mountains and a dead animal. As the truck hits obstacles, immigrants fall off the truck’s bed. Scores are calculated by the number of immigrants helped crossing the U.S. border.

Developer Alex Schwartz said the idea for the satirical game came out frustration friends faced while trying to immigrate to the U.S.

But Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrants & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said the game is in poor taste.