Apple announced on Thursday it will be removing an app that enabled users to share details about sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents following criticism from the ICE director.
ICEBlock was removed from Apple’s App Store along with other apps like it, Apple said.
Apple stated, “Our App Store was designed to be a secure and reliable place to find apps. We have decided to pull ICEBlock and similar apps from the App Store based on safety concerns provided by law enforcement.”
Officials from the Trump administration have raised alarms about threats and attacks targeting ICE agents, including incidents where their personal information is exposed online, a practice known as “doxxing.”
ICEBlock does not involve the sharing of personal information about agents, but it notifies people within a 5-mile radius of sightings.
The app debuted in April, three months after President Donald Trump’s inauguration where he pledged to enforce stricter immigration controls. Usage of the app surged in June, coinciding with immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Fox Business, which initially broke the news of the app’s removal on Thursday, reported that the Justice Department, guided by Attorney General Pam Bondi, requested Apple to take down ICEBlock.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Bondi informed Fox Business, “We contacted Apple today demanding the removal of the ICEBlock app from their App Store, and Apple complied.”
Bondi told the news outlet that “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons also criticized the app in July.
A message seeking comment from ICEBlock’s founder or others affiliated with the app, which was sent through its website, was not immediately returned Thursday night.
The app is being removed a little more than a week after a 29-year-old Texas man, Joshua Jahn, opened fire on people at a Dallas ICE facility sally port, killing two detainees and himself. No ICE agents were injured.
After the shooting, Marcos Charles, the ICE field office director of enforcement and removal operations, said Jahn used ICE tracking apps. He did not say which ones.
There have been more than 1 million downloads of the ICEBlock app, according to app tracking firm Appfigures. Downloads took off in June, according to the firm.
That month, ICE ramped up immigration raids in Los Angeles. Demonstrators protested the raids, and some downtown stores were looted. The Trump administration sent the National Guard to the city without a request from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a controversial move that critics called political theater and an attempt to intimidate and terrorize residents.
A federal judge ruled Sept. 2 that the deployment of National Guard personnel and Marines to Los Angeles was illegal. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco ruled that it violated a 19th century law that prohibits the use of soldiers for civilian law enforcement activities.
