Civil Rights group sues Bondi, Noem over pressuring tech companies to censor ICE monitoring app

A civil rights group sued the Trump administration Wednesday in Illinois for allegedly pressuring major tech companies to censor an app and a Facebook group that reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity online.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression argued that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem violated the free speech rights of two Americans by pushing to censor the platforms.

FIRE filed the lawsuit on behalf of Kae Rosado, who created a Facebook group on ICE raids in Chicago, and Mark Hodges, who created the app "Eyes Up" that allows users to post information about ICE activity nationwide. 

“As U.S. citizens, we have the right to keep each other informed about what our government officials are doing and how they’re doing it,” Hodges said in a statement. “Government transparency and accountability are fundamental in a free society.”

The lawsuit comes after Apple removed several ICE tracking apps from its app store in October over concern about the safety of ICE agents amid an increase in violent attacks on ICE officers.

Bondi said the Justice Department raised the concern about the safety of ICE agents and had asked Apple to remove the ICEBlock app, which uses crowdsourcing to report ICE movements. 

ICEBlock creator Joshua Aaron has also sued the Trump administration over its pressure on Apple to remove his app.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.