The RecordExhibit 145
Demanding that Apple and Facebook take down apps and groups that tracked ICE agents
Ruled unlawful means: A court ruled against it. Some rulings are on appeal.
In October 2025 the attorney general and the homeland security secretary demanded that Apple and Facebook remove apps and groups whose users reported sightings of immigration agents, and both companies did. In April 2026 a federal judge in Chicago found the creators of one app and one Facebook group likely to prove the government violated the First Amendment, and barred officials from coercing the companies.
What happened
On Oct. 2, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox News that the Justice Department had demanded Apple remove ICEBlock, an app for reporting immigration officer sightings, and that Apple had complied; Apple also removed Eyes Up, an app built by Mark Hodges's Kreisau Group, the next day, citing a ban on mean-spirited content and information from law enforcement, and other trackers such as Red Dot came off the App Store and Google Play.
Bondi said she was eyeing ICEBlock's developer and that he should be careful, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the department was working with the Justice Department on whether CNN could be prosecuted for reporting on the app. Less than two weeks later, after outreach from the Justice Department, Facebook removed 'ICE Sightings, Chicagoland', a group run by Kassandra Rosado that had grown to nearly 100,000 members during Operation Midway Blitz; the same day Bondi and Noem posted on X crediting the department with the removal.
Rosado started a replacement group that has about 50,000 members. The judge noted that both companies had approved the app and the group under their own rules before the government intervened. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued for Rosado and the Kreisau Group on Feb. 11, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Secretary Markwayne Mullin have since replaced Bondi and Noem as defendants.
Where it stands
On April 17, 2026, Judge Jorge Alonso granted a preliminary injunction, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their First Amendment claim. He wrote that Bondi and Noem 'demanded, rather than requested' that the companies censor the plaintiffs' speech, that officials intimated the companies could face prosecution if they did not comply, and he called officials' social media posts thinly veiled threats.
The injunction bars the government from coercing Apple and Facebook into removing the app and the group. It is a preliminary ruling, the case continues, and we found no report of an appeal.
The administration's side
The government has described the trackers as enabling the doxxing of immigration agents and putting them at risk. In court the Justice Department argued that even if the complaint's allegations were true they would not show coercion, because Apple and Facebook made their own independent content moderation decisions.
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/icetrackers/