My Xbox Knows Where I Was

Undocumented immigrant Jose Munoz, 25, thought he was ideal for President Barack Obama’s 2012 safe-harbor initiative for illegal-entry children, since he’d been brought here by his undocumented parents before age 16, had no criminal record and had graduated from high school (with honors, even). Since then, though, he’s stayed home in Sheboygan, Wis., helping his family, doing odd jobs and, admittedly, playing video games and “vegging.” Living “in the shadows,” it was hard to prove the final legal criterion: that he’d lived here continuously since graduation (using government records, payroll sheets, utility bills, etc.). After initial failures to convince immigration officials, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in March, Munoz’s lawyer succeeded by submitting Munoz’s Xbox Live records, documenting that his computer’s Wisconsin location had been accessing video games, day after day, for years.