Rep. Grijalva says he was pepper sprayed during an ICE protest
Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva said she was pepper sprayed when she was confronted by ICE agents during an immigration raid protest in Tucson.
The developer of ICEBlock, a popular app used to share field sightings of federal immigration agents, sued the Trump administration on December 8 for violating its free speech rights after Apple removed the app from its online store.
ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron claimed in a filing that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials made “unconstitutional threats and demands against Apple,” which led to the app’s removal in October.
“When we see the government doing something wrong, it’s our duty as citizens to hold the government accountable, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this case,” Aaron said, according to Reuters.
People who oppose President Trump’s immigration policies and advocate for the safety of immigrants and others are using apps and other methods to track and record ICE activity and alert people who are at risk of being detained.
Aaron said he believes the Trump administration is attacking not only his own free speech rights, but the free speech rights of all Americans when it goes after apps like ICEBlock, and he hopes his lawsuit will help stop the administration’s “erosion of the Constitution.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, told Reuters that assaults and death threats against federal immigration officials have skyrocketed since the department stepped up operations to arrest and deport people in the country illegally.
“But of course the media is reporting that Apple, bowing to pressure, is making the right decision to remove these apps instead of preventing further bloodshed and killing law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.
The U.S. Attorney General’s Office, DHS, and Apple did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment on Dec. 8.
“National Censorship Mechanism”
The Trump administration has condemned the ICE tracking app, saying it could lead to increased attacks on immigration officials conducting federal deportation campaigns. The complaint rejects this claim, saying the data collected is deleted four hours after the ICE sighting and that the app’s design “makes it available for informational purposes only.”
“Fundamentally, ICEBlock does not enable or encourage confrontation; it merely provides time-limited location information to help users remain aware of their surroundings in a responsible, non-violent manner,” the complaint says.
In July, President Donald Trump said he was considering suing CNN after news outlets reported on ICEBlock. The complaint alleges that the defendants “launched a coordinated campaign of retaliation” against Aaron, illustrating the pattern of criticism the app faced after CNN’s reporting.
“Ms. Bondi’s call for Apple to remove ICEBlock from the App Store and her perspective-based criticism of CNN, which released the app, amount to a ‘state censorship plot,'” the complaint says.
According to the lawsuit, the app had more than 1 million users at the time of its removal.
“Growing up in a Jewish household, I have learned from history the consequences of remaining silent in the face of oppression,” Aaron said in a statement provided to USA TODAY. “I will never back down from resisting the Trump administration’s targeting of immigrants and co-opting businesses into its unconstitutional agenda.”
Legal Professionals: Oversight of Representatives Mainly Protected by the Constitution
The app is still functional for those who downloaded it before it was removed from app stores, and allows users to report publicly observable activities of federal immigration officials and their locations. Aaron argued in his lawsuit that this feature is similar to what mapping apps like Waze do when they allow users to report police locations.
According to the complaint, Aaron submitted the app to Apple for approval and it was available through Apple’s app store from April of this year until it was removed. Legal experts told Reuters that surveillance of immigration officials is largely protected by the U.S. Constitution, as long as people do not interfere with their work or encourage others to do so.
Courts have long held that recording law enforcement activities in public places is legal.
The complaint cites a message Apple sent to Aaron saying that “information provided to Apple by law enforcement agencies” indicates his app violates the company’s guidelines because “its purpose is to provide location information of law enforcement officers that can be used to harm law enforcement officers as individuals or groups.”
The lawsuit asks the court to stop the defendants from “coercing, threatening, or requesting that Apple or any other app distribution service stop distributing the app” and “threatening, investigating, or prosecuting Aaron.”
“If we allow community information sharing to be silenced, our democracy will fail. The United States is no different from China or Russia,” Deirdre von Dornam, the lead attorney representing Aaron, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Contributor: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY. Reuters
