On January 7, the tabletop charity content creator Jes Wade, known online as jesishuman, launched a game jam called No ICE in Minnesota on itch.io. With five days left as of writing, there is over 500 accepted entries and 1,000-plus total submissions.

According to the game jam’s page, the event is collecting project submissions — including but not limited to new and old games, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) and browser-based games — until January 26. All accepted submissions will be entered into a charity bundle running from February 9 – March 13 that aims to benefit Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, a nonprofit organization that educates communities on immigration matters and provides free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota.

The No ICE in Minnesota charity bundle will be $10 at a minimum, but higher donations are accepted. Considering the amount of games available at that price, this bundle is not only raising money for a worthwhile and urgent cause, but also shaping up to be one of the best deals for games in 2026 altogether. Games submitted include Baba is You, Quality Dreams, Reasoably Priced, EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY , Calico and much more. The rules for those still interested in entering a project are that the submission “must be a game or game adjacent and they cannot include racist, transphobic, homophobic, sexist, ableist, or GenAI Content.”

The launch of this game jam and charity bundle follows escalations of violence by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, at the behest of President Trump and his administration, in the state of Minnesota in recent weeks. While far from the first state to be terrorized by ICE, Minnesota entered the international spotlight following a major increase in ICE presence in December 2025 which preceded the killing of 37-year old Renée Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7.

Despite the increasing amount of issues from ICE’s rabid dog-like approach to carrying out its mass deportation mission, President Trump has shown no signs of cooling the temperature. While he has repeatedly threated to invoke the Insurrection Act, the army has also put 1500 soldiers on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota. In turn, Minnesotans have not stopped showing up to protect their neighbors. In addition to protests calling for ICE to leave Minnesota and other acts of solidarity, faith leaders, union representatives and more have called for a state-wide strike and economic blackout on Friday, January 23 where nobody goes to work, attends school or goes shopping.

For more about what’s happening on the groud in Minnesota, consider watching independent games media outlet MinnMax’s video Let’s Talk About Minneapolis. Given the high Minnesota representation among its cohorts, the outlet’s perspective is particulaly valuable as it pertains to how ICE’s presence is affecting residents. One cohort, Leo Vader, will also be doing a 12-hour Hitman stream on Saturday, January 24 to raise money for Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, an immigrant rights mass-movemnet organization.

So, regardless of preference for playing many games at a cheap price or watching creators like jesishuman play a few to raise funds, there are multiple ways for people to support communities surviving a violent onslaught from a poorly-vetted, nauseatingly well-funded government agency that has already seen its detainees die at alarming rates three weeks into 2026.