On this photograph illustration, the ICEBlock app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on October 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
Google on Friday joined Apple in eradicating apps that can be utilized to anonymously report sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers and different law-enforcement authorities.
Apple on Thursday evening mentioned it was eradicating ICEBlock and different related apps used to trace authorities.
Apple’s transfer got here after direct strain from Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, and amid controversy over the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement of immigration legislation with ICE brokers and different authorities.
The FBI mentioned final week {that a} gunman whose assault on a Dallas ICE facility led to the deaths of two detained immigrants and the wounding of a 3rd detainee had not too long ago searched apps monitoring the presence of ICE brokers.
The gunman, Joshua Jahn, meant to kill ICE brokers within the assault, which ended with him fatally taking pictures himself, authorities mentioned.
“We created the App Retailer to be a secure and trusted place to find apps,” Apple mentioned in a press release to NBC Information on Thursday.
“Based mostly on data we have obtained from legislation enforcement concerning the security dangers related to ICEBlock, we’ve got eliminated it and related apps from the App Retailer,” the corporate mentioned.
Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner holds a subsequent technology iPhone 17 throughout an Apple particular occasion at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2025 in Cupertino, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Photographs
On Friday, Google adopted go well with.
“ICEBlock was by no means out there on Google Play, however we eliminated related apps for violations of our insurance policies,” a Google spokesperson advised NBC Information.
The spokesperson mentioned Google was not contacted by the Division of Justice about its prior providing of such apps.
Fox Enterprise first reported Apple’s booting of ICEBlock and different related apps.
ICEBlock has been downloaded greater than 1 million instances because it was launched this 12 months, in accordance with knowledge offered to NBC Information by the app monitoring agency Appfigures. The app hit a excessive of practically 114,000 downloads in a single day on July 1, a day after a CNN article concerning the app sparked criticism from the Trump administration.
Federal brokers confront protesters exterior of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement constructing on September 28, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
Mathieu Lewis-rolland | Getty Photographs
Bondi, in a press release to Fox Information Digital on Thursday, mentioned, “We reached out to Apple at the moment demanding they take away the ICEBlock app from their App Retailer — and Apple did so.”
“ICEBlock is designed to place ICE brokers in danger only for doing their jobs, and violence towards legislation enforcement is an insupportable pink line that can’t be crossed,” Bondi mentioned within the assertion.
“This Division of Justice will proceed making each effort to guard our courageous federal legislation enforcement officers, who threat their lives each day to maintain Individuals secure,” she mentioned.
CNBC has requested remark from Bondi.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan, in an interview Thursday evening with Fox Information’ Sean Hannity, mentioned, “They’re gonna examine these individuals who put these apps up — as a result of it places legislation enforcement at nice threat.”
CNBC has reached out for remark from ICEBlock’s creator, Joshua Aaron.
ICEBlock, which was launched final spring, is free.
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a publish on X final week, famous that the person who opened fireplace on the ICE facility in Dallas on Sept. 24 “was utilizing considered one of these apps” to trace ICE brokers.
ICEBlock turned the highest social networking app in Apple’s App Retailer shortly after Leavitt condemned the app throughout a White Home press briefing on June 30.
CNN, that very same day, had revealed an article on the app that quoted Aaron as saying that he developed ICEBlock after seeing the Trump administration’s deportation efforts escalate.
“After I noticed what was taking place on this nation, I wished to do one thing to struggle again,” Aaron mentioned on the time, suggesting that the immigration enforcement efforts had been paying homage to Nazi Germany.
“We’re actually watching historical past repeat itself.”
ICE’s performing director, Todd Lyons, on June 30 mentioned, “Promoting an app that principally paints a goal on federal legislation enforcement officers’ backs is sickening.”
“My officers and brokers are already dealing with a 500% enhance in assaults, and occurring stay tv to announce an app that lets anybody zero in on their areas is like inviting violence towards them with a nationwide megaphone,” Lyons mentioned.
However Aaron, in an NBC interview days later, referred to as the Trump administration’s criticism of ICEBlock “one other right-wing fearmongering scare tactic.”
He mentioned he designed the app to assist immigrants who’re afraid of being deported.
“I grew up in a Jewish family, and being a part of the Jewish neighborhood, I had the prospect to fulfill Holocaust survivors and be taught the historical past of what occurred in Nazi Germany, and the parallels that we are able to draw between what’s taking place proper now in our nation and Hitler’s rise to energy are plain,” Aaron mentioned.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this story.
