Apple has pulled apps used to expose the whereabouts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country to help illegal immigrants avoid arrest, which critics say have helped attackers target the agents.
The move comes after it was revealed that the anti-ICE shooter who opened fire on an agency facility in Dallas last month used the app before the attack. Two detainees were killed, while a third was injured as a result of the shooting.
Such threats to law enforcement led Attorney General Pam Bondi to instruct officials at the Justice Department to pressure Apple to take the anti-ICE app down, Fox News Digital reported.
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“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi told the outlet.
“ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed. This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe,” she said.
Following the recent Dallas attack, Marcos Charles, ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, called out the anti-ICE apps for serving as a “casting call to invite bad actors to attack law enforcement officers.”
“It’s no different than giving the hit man the location of their intended target, and this is exactly what we saw happen in Dallas yesterday,” Charles said during a press conference last month.
Some mainstream media outlets have amplified the apps despite receiving warnings that “it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement,” said Charles.
“We truly wish we didn’t have to say we told you so, but here we are,” he said.
Officers respond after a shooter opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas. (Photo by Stewart F. House/Getty Images)
Apple confirmed it took ICEBlock and “similar apps” down from its app store in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps. Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store,” Apple said.
ICEBlock creator Joshua Aaron said he was “incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions today.”
“Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” Aaron said. “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.”
The anti-ICE app still functions for users who already downloaded it before its takedown from the store.
ICEBlock first came under scrutiny in June after CNN promoted the app on air. ICE officials slammed the network for promoting the app, arguing that it would put ICE agents in danger.
“CNN’s promotion of an ‘ICE spotting’ app is reckless and irresponsible,” ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said at the time. “Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening.”
“CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade U.S. law,” he added.
“It’s only a matter of time before ICE officers are going to be ambushed by some nut, like what happened in L.A., throwing a Molotov cocktail, throwing bricks at these officers,” White House Border Czar Tom Homan said at the time. “This is just disgusting at every level, so I hope DOJ dives in this deeply, because ICE is concentrating on public safety threats and national security threats.”
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