While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are working hard to track down criminal illegal immigrants, CNN’s promoting an ICE spotting app, designed to alert people nearby to sightings of ICE agents in their area.
CNN Business highlighted the iPhone app, called ICEBlock, on Monday — the latest effort to push its anti-Trump agenda with biased or false reporting. Last week, CNN reported on an early leaked U.S. intel assessment that suggested the U.S. strikes on Iran did not destroy its nuclear sites, which many sources said was wrong.
“CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade U.S. law,” said ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons in a statement. “Is this simply reckless ‘journalism’ or overt activism?”
CNN never reached out to ICE for comment. If they did, we would have provided this statement: https://t.co/iwhCu9efMT@CNN @claresduffy pic.twitter.com/Y6tXqR4mSa
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) June 30, 2025
CNN Tech Reporter Clare Duffy interviewed the app developer, Joshua Aaron, and created a video explaining how it works. Aaron has a background in “tech, music and activism” and launched the platform in early April after the Trump administration stepped up immigration enforcement.
ICEBlock currently has more than 20,000 users, many of whom are in Los Angeles, where deportation efforts have sparked weeks of protests.
“CNN’s promotion of an ‘ICE spotting’ app is reckless and irresponsible,” Lyons continued. “Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening. My officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults, and going on live television to announce an app that lets anyone zero in on their locations is like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone.”
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, also reacted in a segment on FOX News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
“Examples like these apps are absolutely obstructing justice,” McLaughlin said. “What our ICE enforcement officers are doing is enforcing the rule of law. If these rioters, these activists and these politicians don’t like the law they should change it. Don’t go after our ICE law enforcement. It’s disgusting, it’s wrong and it’s un-American.”
John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California Berkley and former deputy assistant attorney general, appeared on FOX’s “Outnumbered” and said it could be “criminal.” Yoo said it’s the cyber equivalent of the people who are trying to block ICE offices in LA and setting cars on fires to impede agents from doing their job.
“I think this person should be investigated and I think the app should be brought down by the government,” he said. “And I think people who are using it should be investigated for trying to obstruct federal law enforcement. That is a crime. This is not just playing around with apps. This is a federal crime.”
ICEBlock is designed to be an “early warning system” for users when ICE is operating nearby, Aaron told CNN.
The app allows users to pin spots on a map, alerting others to where agents have been spotted. They can include optional notes, like what officers were wearing or what kind of car they were driving. Other users within a five-mile radius receive a push alert notifying them of the sighting.
Aaron refutes the notion that the app is meant to help users stage protests and interfere with the agency’s operations.
“The app was designed to inform not obstruct,” Aaron told CNN. “It’s important to remind people ‘Let’s report the sightings, let’s get people away from those areas,’ so they can protect themselves and their communities but let’s not obstruct what’s happening.”
The app provides a similar warning when users log a sighting: “Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only. It is not to be used for the purposes of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement.”
Aaron told CNN he has no plans to monetize the free app but rather “wants it to be a service to the community.” Users remain anonymous, and ICEBlock doesn’t collect personal data, according to Aaron. It’s only available on iOS and not Android because Aaron says the app would have to collect information that could ultimately put users at risk.
