“SNL” created the worst board game ever, and it’s based on the U.S. immigration system.
In the April 7 episode, hosted by Chadwick Boseman, “Saturday Night Live” debuted a parody commercial for “The Game of Life: DACA Edition” that has some players randomly finding themselves battling confusing bureaucracy to avoid getting deported. While other players go to law school or have twins in the game and have to deal with it, players stuck in the version about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, have to dodge deportation and struggle to pay legal bills.
Melissa Villaseñor played a woman stuck on the DACA path, which included navigating the obstacles of becoming a legal citizen and avoiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking to send her “back to Honduras.”
“Back to? But I’ve never been to Honduras,” she winced.
“Surprise!” said Beck Bennett, playing the commercial’s narrator. “You were brought here as a baby!”
Things got worse for Villaseñor as she continued playing, with the game board expanding to include barbed wire-surrounded deportation centers and Donald Trump’s much-discussed border wall.
“DACA Edition” players also had to worry about cards that could get drawn at random to change the game, similar to the “Chance” cards of the game “Monopoly.” The “SNL” version of those cards were labeled “Presidential Tweets.”
“Uh-oh!” The narrator said. “Better hope it’s about ‘Roseanne!’” Instead of being a real-life tweet from Trump congratulating Roseanne Barr on her show’s ratings success (and how much has been made about Barr and the show being pro-Trump), the card had another real Trump tweet, declaring “DACA is dead!”
The game then moved Villaseñor’s character into the immigration legal system, a much larger section of the board made to look like a flaming hellscape. Here, Villaseñor was forced to figure out how she could get a job to pay a lawyer, who would help her get the immigration papers that would make it legal for her to work in the U.S.
“Figure that one out!” Bennett’s narrator said sarcastically.
As Villaseñor gave up in frustration, Bennett read the game’s immigration law-skewering tagline:
“The Game of Life: DACA Edition. Now your destiny is determined at birth.”