ICEBlock is a free iPhone app
The developer of an iPhone app for sharing sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has been publicly threatened by the US Legal professional Normal.
Trump’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers into Los Angeles — conducting raids the LA Mayor says are fully pointless — has already sparked riots within the metropolis. A free iOS app known as ICEBlock has been letting customers report sightings of those officers, and thereby warning different locals to keep away from sure areas.
Now as first noticed by Wired, the app’s developer has been publicly threatened by United States Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi. “We’re him,” she mentioned on Fox Information, “and he higher be careful.”
There is no such thing as a obvious authorized foundation for such a risk, and it seems to be a wholly unconstitutional assault towards free speech. Developer Joshua Aaron says his app is about “informing, not obstructing.”
“We’re pushing again towards authoritarianism. We’re pushing again towards fascism,” Aaron mentioned. “They’re gonna hearth off hate rhetoric at you. They’re gonna demonize every little thing you are doing. They’re gonna threaten you.”
White Home takes on CNN
On the identical time, Trump’s administration is following its traditional playbook of threatening to sue. This time, its risk is towards CNN only for masking the existence of the app.
“We’re working with the Division of Justice to see if we will prosecute them for that as a result of what they’re doing is actively encouraging individuals to keep away from legislation enforcement actions and operations,” Homeland Safety secretary Kristi Noem mentioned to press“and we will really go after them and prosecute them… as a result of what they’re doing, we imagine, is illegitimate.”
Noem can imagine what she likes, however the reporting is not unlawful and freedom of the press is expressly protected by the Structure. CNN has thus far responded solely with a tweet asserting that reporting on the existence of an app is neither unlawful, nor indicative of any endorsement by the information group.
Trump’s administration has taken the stance that the app is endangering ICE officers.
“Absolutely, it seems like this may be an incitement of additional violence towards our ICE officers,” mentioned White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“(There has) been a 500 % enhance in violence towards ICE brokers,” Leavitt continued, with out presenting any proof and her failing to current the context that seen ICE agent actions have elevated by effectively greater than 500%.
The implication is that the app and another resistance to the ICE raids in Los Angeles is chargeable for this unsubstantiated enhance in violence. Trump’s administration doesn’t acknowledge that the actions of the ICE officers may have any half in prompting public response.
“If you happen to keep in mind, in the beginning of this administration, we had been instructed that raids can be to search for violent criminals, individuals who had warrants,” Mayor Karen Bass mentioned in June 2025. “However I do not understand how you go from a drug vendor to a Dwelling Depot, to individuals’s workplaces, the place they’re simply attempting to make a dwelling.”
