OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:23 PM – Friday, October 3, 2025
Apple has decided to remove ICEBlock, an app utilized to track the movement and sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, from its App Store, citing safety risks the application has posed to law enforcement.
Apple was asked to remove the app from its platform by Department of Justice (DOJ) officials at the behest of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who argued that the tracking application places federal agents in danger while tipping off illegal aliens.
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi stated on Thursday.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
The removal comes a week after an individual opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas, killing two migrants in the process.
The suspect, Joshua Jahn, reportedly searched for ICE tracking apps, including ICEBlock, according to authorities. Authorities stated that Jahn intended to attack the federal immigration agents, but ended up ultimately killing two detainees.
“The evidence is clear that this was intended as an assault on ICE personnel who come to work every day to do their job,” stated Marcos Charles, the acting director for ICE’s removal operations. “Violent rhetoric has led to an over 1000% increase in assaults on ICE officers, and it has to stop.”
Apple released a statement in response to the app’s removal, stating: “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 also sent an email to ICEBlock creator Joshua Aaron, informing him that “upon re-evaluation,” the app does not comply with Apple’s guidelines surrounding “objectionable” and “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content,” according to CNN.
“Information provided to Apple by law enforcement shows that your app violates” the guidelines of the App Store, as “its purpose is to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group,” the email read.
The developer, which claimed to have more than 1 million users, vowed to “fight” Apple’s decision.
“We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to ‘objectionable content’,” ICEBlock stated in a social media post. “The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin. We have responded and we’ll fight this!”
“ICEBlock is no different from crowdsourcing speed traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple’s own Maps app, implements as part of its core services,” Aaron stated. “This is protected speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. We are determined to fight this with everything we have.”
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