Apple Removes ICE Tracking App After DOJ Crackdown

In a rare move that actually supports law enforcement, Apple has removed ICEBlock a popular app used to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after the Department of Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, raised serious concerns about the threat it posed to federal agents.

ICEBlock didn’t just “monitor activity.” It allowed users often illegal immigrants and radical activists to anonymously report and broadcast the location of federal agents, potentially endangering their lives. And for over a year, Big Tech just looked the other way.

That changed this week when Bondi’s DOJ stepped in. "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," Bondi said in a statement.

She’s right. And the timing couldn’t be more serious. Just last month, ICE officers were the targets of a deadly rooftop shooting at an ICE field office in Dallas, Texas. Authorities say the shooter, Joshua Jahn, used tracking apps like ICEBlock to find out where agents were located before opening fire.

• Jahn killed one detainee and critically wounded two ICE personnel.

• One of the agents a 32-year-old husband and father of four later died from his injuries.

• DOJ officials confirmed Jahn had used his phone to search for real-time ICE tracking apps before the attack.

This is what happens when you normalize the demonization of law enforcement. And it’s happening more and more often. According to ICE, assaults on their agents have skyrocketed over 1000% amid a rise in violent rhetoric and coordinated harassment from activist groups and open-border extremists.

ICE officials didn’t hold back. “The evidence is clear that this was intended as an assault on ICE personnel who come to work every day to do their job,” said Marcos Charles, acting director of ICE’s removal operations. “This has to stop.”

And yet, the creator of ICEBlock Joshua Aaron called Apple’s move a capitulation to an “authoritarian regime.” That’s rich coming from someone who built a digital tool to track down federal law enforcement agents and expose their locations in real-time.

Aaron claims the app is no different than crowd-sourced speed trap alerts. That argument might hold if traffic cops were being hunted by rooftop snipers.

This isn’t about free speech. It’s about national security. ICE agents are working to enforce immigration law in a country where the Biden administration has completely abandoned the border. They’re stretched thin, underfunded, vilified in the media, and now being physically hunted. And when they’re murdered, too many on the Left shrug their shoulders if they say anything at all.

The fact that it took a violent, targeted shooting for Apple to act is a disgrace. But at least they did. The real question is why this app was ever allowed to exist in the first place.

If this country has any hope of restoring law and order, it starts with standing up for those on the front lines and calling out the enablers who put their lives at risk for political clout.

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