Extremists have shown a renewed interest in populating the Internet with links to video games that target Hispanics, portraying them not as productive contributors to society, but as objects of scorn, derision and hate.  Shoot-to-kill video games such as "Border Patrol," a game created in Flash that is easily accessible on the Internet through extremist Web sites, have become increasingly popular among those opposed to immigration and are widely shared among extremists in the United States.  This has especially been the case as the national discussion over immigration has gathered force.

In "Border Patrol" – one of the more popular Flash games available on the Internet through various extremist Web sites – the object is to "kill" caricatures of Mexicans as they attempt to cross the border and gain entry to the U.S.


Players control a gun and are charged with killing stereotypical Mexicans.  Targets include a "Mexican nationalist," who carries a Mexican flag and a pistol; a "Drug smuggler," wearing a sombrero and carrying a bag of marijuana on his back; and finally a "Breeder" – a pregnant woman who has two small children in tow.  Aside from the virulently anti-Hispanic themes within the game, it also hints at anti-Semitic myths such as "Jewish control" of the U.S. through an image where the border is represented by a bullet-ridden sign showing an American flag whose 50 stars have been replaced by a single Jewish Star of David.

Under this sign, another small sign directs the Mexicans to a "Welfare Office."  The player "wins" when he or she has made 88 kills.  The number 88 has significance to neo-Nazis, who use it as shorthand for "Heil Hitler" ("H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet).

"Border Patrol" was first created in 2002 by the now-defunct website "Zine14," and was soon being copied and distributed by extremists and others.  In March 2003, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations group and Christian Identity preacher James Wickstrom both linked to copies of this game from the front pages of their Web sites.  In recent months, the game has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, largely due to neo-Nazis trying to capitalize on the national immigration debate.  Neo-Nazi leader Tom Metzger posted the game on his Web site, and other extremists have linked to it and promoted it on fringe online discussion groups. Games, music and cartoons are some of the methods extremist groups rely on as part of their efforts to reach a younger audience and to expose them to their hateful ideas and beliefs.  Cartoon-like Flash games are seen as ideal for this task, because they are small and easy to create and share over the Internet, or enclose in an e-mail message.  In recent years, extremist groups such as the neo-Nazi National Alliance have also created more sophisticated video games, such as "Ethnic Cleansing," a game available on CD-ROM that also engages in the stereotyping and demonizing of Hispanics.  Their aim is to attact unsuspecting users to extremist Web sites, where they can be exposed to the message and goals of the hate groups. Such games are tools that extremists increasingly use to desensitize people against acts of violence, to portray hate crimes as something to be celebrated, to dehumanize America's Hispanic population and to draw attention to their cause using the new technologies available to them on the Internet.