Apple has removed ICEBlock, which allows users to track and report the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, from its App Store.
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” Apple said in a statement to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister company. “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.”
The app, created in April, allows users to track where ICE officers are and note their locations. Those within a five-mile radius of the officers would receive a notification.
Attorney General Pam Bondi reached out to Apple direct to seek the app’s removal.
“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,” Bondi said in a statement shared with The Hill. “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.”
Since President Trump returned to office in January, ICE has conducted numerous immigration raids across the country, sparking concerns and protests from migrant communities and supporters.
According to a CNN report on ICEBlock in June, the app had more than 20,000 users. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in July, one day after CNN’s story was published, that her department was working with Bondi’s Justice Department to “see if we can prosecute” the outlet. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, aired similar criticisms.
Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, in September called ICEBlock and similar apps “a casting call to invite bad actors to attack law enforcement officers” during a press conference the day after a man fatally shot two detainees at an ICE facility in Dallas. Charles said the deceased shooter used ICE tracking apps to plan the incident.
“Anyone who creates or distributes these apps that [are] designed to spot, track and locate ICE officers are well aware of the dangers that they’re exposing to law enforcement,” Charles added.
Updated Oct. 3 at 11:30 a.m. EDT