Oct 2, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Apple drops ICE tracking apps from its store after Trump DOJ demand

Rebecca Falconer

A long, blonde-haired Attorney General Pam Bondi, wearing a green jacket and green and white striped shirt, and President Trump, with gray hair, wearing a navy jacket with a US flag, white shirt and pink and blue checkered tie, look at reporters. — Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump at the White House last month. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Apple is removing from its App Store apps that alert the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in people's local areas, the tech giant announced Thursday evening.

The big picture: The move comes as the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants shows no signs of abating and follows Attorney General Pam Bondi contacting Apple on Thursday "demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store," per a statement shared with Axios and other outlets.

What they're saying: "We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps," an Apple spokesperson said in an emailed statement Thursday night on the the news that was first reported by Fox News Digital.

"Based on information we've received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store."

Context: ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron told the BBC in an interview published Wednesday he developed the app that's been downloaded over one million times "to keep people safe" amid widespread ICE raids.

However, Bondi told Fox News Digital: "ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed."

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Apple drops ICE tracking apps from its store after Trump DOJ demand

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