The founders of ICEBlock, the iPhone app used to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, are suing Trump administration officials over the app’s removal from the Apple store.
Apple removed ICEBlock from its app store in October after the Department of Justice requested the company do so, citing concerns for officer safety if the app remained accessible. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an October statement that the app “is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi said in October.
ICEBlock’s founder, Joshua Aaron, and its intellectual property owner, All U Chart, filed a lawsuit against Bondi and several other Trump administration officials over their comments about the app.
“Attorney General Bondi’s self-congratulatory claim that she succeeded in pushing Apple to remove ICEBlock is an admission that she violated our client’s constitutional rights. In America, government officials cannot suppress free speech by pressuring private companies to do it for them,” Noam Biale, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
ICEBlock gained traction in the United States after CNN released a segment covering the app. Border Czar Tom Homan, a defendant in the lawsuit, was outraged at CNN’s decision to spotlight the app and called for a DOJ investigation into the matter.
Immigration enforcement officials have criticized the app for impeding immigration enforcement and for being a danger to ICE officers, particularly in light of the Texas ICE facility shooting, which the FBI deemed an act of “targeted violence” against immigration enforcement.
“ICE tracking apps put the lives of the men and women of law enforcement in danger as they go after terrorists, vicious gangs and violent criminal rings. Our law officers are facing more than a 1150% increase in assaults against them and an 8000% increase in death threats,” Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“But, of course, the media spins this correct decision for Apple to remove these apps as them caving to pressure instead of preventing further bloodshed and stopping law enforcement from getting killed,” McLaughlin said.
The plaintiffs allege the Trump administration officials “launched a coordinated campaign of retaliation against Aaron and CNN, spreading false claims about ICEBlock,” in the complaint.
The plaintiffs wrote in the complaint that their lawsuit “challenges these government officials’ unconstitutional threats and demands against Apple, which pressured it to remove the ICEBlock app from the App Store.” They say it also challenges the named administration officials for what the plaintiffs called their “unlawful threats” to “criminally investigate and prosecute Aaron for his role in developing ICEBlock.”
“These threats were intended and designed to chill Aaron and others from engaging in expressive activity—specifically, sharing information about publicly observable law-enforcement actions—and to deter technology companies and journalistic institutions from supporting, amplifying, or facilitating such speech,” the complaint reads.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ICE TRACKING APP
The complaint specifically names Bondi, Homan, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, acting ICE director Todd Lyons, and 10 John Doe federal officials as defendants. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been assigned to Federal Judge Dabney L. Friedrich.
The DOJ did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.