Apple has removed a number of apps from its App Store allowing users to track the movement of ICE agents as they conduct raids on alleged illegal immigrants across the United States on behalf of Donald Trump’s administration.
Most prominent among the apps is ICEBlock, a free program with hundreds of thousands of users that has been heavily criticised by top administration officials.
Apple said in a statement that it had acted after being contacted by “law enforcement” but did not state which agency it was referring to.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent: “ICE Officers are facing a 1,000 percent increase in assaults because of unhinged rhetoric from activists and Democrat politicians smearing heroic ICE officers.
“Apps that encourage the doxing of ICE agents only feed into this dangerous mindset and put officers at risk. Anyone who assaults or otherwise harms law enforcement officers will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Independent has also reached out to Apple and ICE for further comment.
ICEBlock, which was the store’s most downloaded app at one point this summer, invites users to share legal information about ICE’s activities in their communities and carries the slogan: “See something, tap something.”
“In recent years, ICE has faced criticism for alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations,” the app explains on its official website.
“Modeled after Waze but for ICE sightings, the app ensures user privacy by storing no personal data, making it impossible to trace reports back to individual users.”
It was attacked by the Trump administration in July, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that the Justice Department was “looking at” the app’s creator, Joshua Aaron, and warning: “He better watch out.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also expressed disapproval of ICEBlock, saying it “sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers,” while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused CNN of “actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities” simply by reporting on its existence.
“We will not be intimidated,” Aaron told The Independent in response to the administration’s comments in July.
“As long as ICE agents have quotas, and this administration ignores people’s constitutional rights, we will continue fighting back. No human is illegal.”
Ending the availability of such programs in app stores is unlikely to prevent members of the public opposed to ICE’s mission from sharing agents’ locations on encrypted messaging services like Signal and WhatsApp or in Reddit threads, a number of which have been used to attempt to try to thwart raids this year.
