ICEBlock: app reports immigration agent sightings amid crackdowns by Trump administration

US Attorney General Pam Bondi claims app is illegal and warns the developer to 'watch out'

ICEBlock, an app that allows people to report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, has been downloaded about one million times and has become the bane of US President Donald Trump's administration.

While the app continues to gain popularity, Mr Trump has increased funding for ICE, whose mandate includes detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Critics say the agents arrest and deport people with little concern for their legal rights, including due process.

“When I saw what was happening in this country I knew I had to do something to fight back,” said ICEBlock app developer Joshua Aaron, who resides in Texas, a state with a large undocumented immigrant population.

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The White House says the ICEBlock smartphone app encourages people to disrupt the efforts of immigration and customs enforcement agents.

Mr Aaron, who is Jewish, told The National that he had decided to create the app after meeting Holocaust survivors and learning all about Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany.

The app aims to alert users to the presence of ICE officials in an 8km radius. It is powered by crowdsourced data, relying on people to report ICE agents wherever they might be.

The app also allows for users to describe the vehicles ICE might be using and their attire. Once a sighting is reported, push notifications are sent to other users nearby.

ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron said the app has been downloaded almost 1 million times. Photo: iPhone App Store

It is ranked in the top 20 for downloads in the social networking section of Apple's App Store. The app is only available for iPhone. According to Mr Aaron, the privacy settings he deems necessary for ICEBlock are not yet possible on Android devices.

Mr Aaron acknowledges criticism that the software could be misused, as the Trump administration has claimed violence against ICE agents is on the rise.

“Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only,” reads a disclaimer appearing throughout ICEBlock, with an added warning that the app should not be used “for the purposes of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement”.

Despite the disclaimers, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has suggested that those promoting the app should face prosecution.

Federal agents block people protesting an ICE immigration raid at a farm. AFP

“We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them because what they’re doing is actually encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activity operations,” she recently told a reporter.

As for Mr Aaron, US Attorney General Pam Bondi recently told Fox News that the Justice Department was “looking into him”.

“He is giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are and he cannot do that,” she said, adding that Mr Aaron should “watch out” and claiming that his app did not fall into the category of protected speech.

Various legal precedents, however, have tended to protect those who report the potentially illegal actions of law enforcement.

But Timothy Kneeland, a professor of history, politics and law at Nazareth University in upstate New York, said that the Trump White House could pursue several legal avenues that might create problems for the app.

“The government could invoke national security issues because ICE might be trying to apprehend a suspected terrorist,” he told The National, also acknowledging that many legal arguments could be made to defend the app, such as the right against self-incrimination.

He also said the government might pursue the angle that ICEBlock enables obstruction of justice, which has led to jail time in the past.

The developer, however, disagreed with how some are interpreting his software.

“This app is to inform not obstruct,” said Mr Aaron.

Joshua Aaron, developer of ICEBlock said that his Jewish upbringing helped inform his worldview about fascism and the need to create an app like ICEBlock.

“They can continue to demonise me and the app all they want, but nothing about it is illegal.”

He added that if ICE officials are abiding by the US Constitution in how they go about their work, there should be no reason for the White House to fear people knowing their whereabouts.

Mr Aaron also accused ICE of having complete disregard for individual circumstances with their arrests, referring to college students being targeted for their decision to protest, mothers being separated from their children, or detainees not being given access to legal representation.

“That is not something I can abide and is the reason ICEBlock was created,” he continued, referring back to the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. “We are literally watching history repeat itself.”