Could US government ban apps which track ICE agents?

The US government and law enforcement agencies have suffered from developers and users of applications who track immigration and customs law enforcement (ICE), claiming that they threaten the life of agents.

The FBI says that a person who is aimed at an ice object in Dallas, having killed two detainees, used these types of applications to track the movements of agents and their vehicles.

The tracking application was loaded more than millions of times, which shows that on Thursday the immigration officers were removed from the Apple App Store.

Ice Block was released in April after the suppression of the Trump administration regarding illegal immigration. The creator of the application said BBC that Apple “surrender the authoritarian regime.”

The White House and the FBI claimed that the application is at risk of law enforcement agencies.

Special agent Joseph Rotrok said: “This is no different from giving the killer the location of their alleged goal” is a statement that was challenged by the developer of one of the most popular applications.

BBC Verify studies what applications are doing, and on the potential influence that they have.

This year, a number of applications were published in response to the suppression of President Trump about illegal immigration and increasing the raid on ice raids.

Applications allow people to report the presence of ice agents in their local areas, which are then marked on the map in order to warn other users.

The most popular is Iceblock, which was released in April and was loaded more than millions of times.

These – and several other ice tracking applications – were suddenly removed from the Apple Store against the backdrop of criticism from the Trump administration.

“We created the App Store to become a safe and reliable place to detect applications. Based on the information that we received from law enforcement agencies about the risks of security related to Iceblock, we deleted it and similar applications from the App Store, ”the Apple statement said.

Joshua Aaron, who worked in the technological industry for many years, said Bi -Bi -x to check why he developed Iceblock.

“Of course, I watched quite carefully during the first administration of Trump, and then I listened to the rhetoric during the second campaign. My brain began to shoot in what was supposed to happen, and what I can do so that people were safe, ”he said.

In July, the US Prosecutor General Pam Bondi accused Mr. Aaron of “a threat to the life of our law enforcement officials throughout this country.”

“We look at him, and it is better for him to beware,” she added.

Mr. Aaron said he did not embarrass.

“Everything that challenges what they do in this country and in this country are going to push back … But they will not intimidate me. Iceblock will be here as long as it is necessary. ”

And he said that his concrete criticism after shooting in Dallas was unjustified.

“You do not need to use the application to tell you where the ice agent is located when you are striving for detention for ice content. Everyone knows where the ice agents are located. ”

After Apple was deleted, Mr. Aaron said that he was “incredibly disappointed” and denied that the application could affect the safety of law enforcement agencies that Apple brought in its reasoning. He vowed to fight this course.

“Iceblock is no different from the high -speed Kroud trap, which is all noticeable for mapping, including Apple's Maps application,” he said. “This is a protected speech in accordance with the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

Bi -Bi -See talked with several unregistered migrants in Washington, who use applications to avoid ICE officers.

“It's scary. They could grab you anywhere, ”one of them said.

“I do not use it often, but I think it can be useful. I heard in the news that the government says it is dangerous [to ICE agents] But I have never heard of something really when there, at least here, ”he said.

Another said that it was difficult for her to imagine a script in which an unregistered migrant would use the application for harm to an employee of law enforcement agencies.

“We are here to work and do not want problems. No one would like to complicate their situation, ”she added.

Another group, according to, uses applications for another purpose.

In one popular Reddit stream, some users claim that they deliberately submit false information to the applications in order to try to interfere with the ICE Operations detection efforts.

One user said: “Planned.

When we turned to this user, they said: “I think Ice is doing a lot of work. I support everything that Ice does. I think that such applications intervene in constitutionally authorized law enforcement measures. Deport, Deport, Deport. “

The Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) states that attacks on ice occurred by 1000%.

Fox News reported an increase in attacks by almost 700% from the first six months of 2024 to the same period in 2025. Attacks grew from 10 to 79.

We asked DHS about the rupture of recorded attacks.

This did not provide them, but revealed individual violent incidents against ice agents, including the threats of the explosion, the use of cars “as a weapon” and shooting.

The ice agents themselves were accused of violence and misconduct.

On September 26, DHS put the officer on vacation after he was removed that he had raised a woman to the ground in the New York Immigration Court.

He has According to reports, he returned for debt.

Marianne Icknails from the Center for Privacy and Technology of Georgetown in Privacy and Technologies said that they can be difficult to ban.

“Laws that allow prohibiting applications on the basis of national security are usually applied only to the technology controlled by a foreigner that do not apply here, since these applications are the United States.”

She argued that applications are similar to police radio scanners, which allows the public to tune in to police messages and is protected in accordance with the first amendment to the US Constitution.

And she said that even if the government would successfully ban the applications, the information will simply be transferred to other platforms.

“The government has no authority to part with the applications,” said Set Stern, the Freedom of the Press Foundation Director.

“The fact that someone can use the application for violation of the law does not mean that the application can be prohibited more than a newspaper or radio station can be prohibited because someone can use its reports in such a way that the administration considers it illegal.”

“You are punishing the act,” he added. “You do not prohibit tools, especially when they are constitutionally protected.”

Before his application was removed from the Apple App Store, Joshua Aaron told us that he does not know that there is some pressure on Apple to remove it.

But he said that he was faced with threats of death and persecution, including the exchange of his personal data on the Internet.

“I'm not going to live in fear, but I'm not going to be stupid. I mean when I go out the door, I look in both directions. “

Additional reports of Bernd Debusmann, Jr., Aisha Sembhi and Lucy Gilder.