Legal experts condemn Apple bowing to White House's request to remove ICE tracking app [View all]

Source: NPR

October 3, 2025 7:34 PM ET


Apple and Google on Thursday removed apps that alert people when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are nearby following pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi. Critics of the tech giants capitulating to the Trump administration say it shows the sway President Trump has over Silicon Valley in his second term.

Apple said it yanked an app called ICEBlock from its app store after the "safety risks" of the app were made known to the company. The anonymous, crowd-sourced app describes itself as "Waze but for ICE sightings," and claims to serve as an early warning system informing people when ICE agents are nearby.

The app was launched in April and garnered hundreds of thousands of downloads, but it was only after Attorney General Pam Bondi put Apple on notice, demanding the app be pulled from the App Store, that the company made it unavailable. "We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so," said Bondi in a statement to Fox News.

The Justice Department did not respond to NPR's questions about its request.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5561999/apple-google-iceblock-app-removal