The developer of an ICE tracking app is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, alleging they leaned on Apple to yank it from the App Store.
ICEBlock creator Joshua Aaron’s complaint accuses government officials of coercing the tech giant into removing the application—a crowdsourcing tool that alerts users to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents nearby—in violation of Aaron’s free-speech rights.
The lawsuit, which was filed in D.C. federal court on Monday cites Bondi, 60, Noem, 54, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, and White House border czar Tom Homan.
Aaron told independent journalist Allison Gill’s Daily Beans podcast that Apple cited “objectionable content” after “information from law enforcement” arrived: “On October 2nd, I received a message from Apple that said, we received information from law enforcement that your app is targeting law enforcement officers.”
Bondi has publicly boasted about pushing Apple to act. Both she and Noem claimed it put ICE officers at risk. “We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store—and Apple did so,” she said in October.
Suggesting government influence encouraged Apple to take the matter more seriously than they otherwise might, Aaron added: “It was like five weeks of back and forth… I had never… seen that rigorous [a] process before.”
The filing relies on Supreme Court precedent limiting government pressure on private firms to punish disfavored speech and seeks an injunction barring further threats against app stores that carry ICEBlock or similar tools.
Aaron and his counsel argue Apple still hosts apps that crowdsource police presence—features available in Apple Maps and Waze—undercutting any claim that ICEBlock uniquely endangers officers. He told Gill: “It’s literally their own software that’s doing exactly the same thing that ICE Block was doing.”
Digital rights group EFF has demanded answers about “coercion and censorship of protected speech.”
The move follows a report in July by the Daily Beast that Bondi’s DOJ fired Aaron’s wife after a MAGA pile-on over the app drew attention to her job.
The Beast has contacted the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
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