Digital watchdog wants answers on federal crackdown of ICE monitoring apps

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A nonprofit digital rights advocacy group sued the departments of Justice and Homeland Security in federal court Thursday for information about the government’s demands to remove apps that track immigration enforcement actions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed the complaint in the Northern District of California, pressing the departments to disclose the demands and communications to tech companies.

After early October correspondence with the federal agencies, Apple, Google and Meta removed apps and webpages including ICE Block, Red Dot, and DelCER which allow the public to monitor Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection activities.

EFF staff attorney Mario Trujillo said in an email that many of the apps and pages were relatively new.

“ICEBlock, for example, only came online in April,” he said. “And [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem started making veiled threats against it as early as June 30, 2025.”

Using the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the communications, EFF argued the removal of information may cause First Amendment violations.

“The government’s actions are the subject of intense media attention and raise important legal questions,” EFF says in the complaint. “Documenting law enforcement activities occurring in public and disseminating that information to the broader public is protected First Amendment activity.”

One of EFF’s current goals is advocating for people’s First Amendment right to film ICE in affected communities. It continues to claim the importance of information-sharing on law enforcement actions and the federal government’s suppression of documents pertaining to those activities, calling it unconstitutional.

The October FOIA requests by EFF to the agencies sought “any and all communications or records of communications between DOJ, or any subsidiary agency component, and Alphabet, Inc, its Google, Inc. subsidiary, or any other corporate subsidiary, concerning applications, services, webpages, or users who publicly disclose ICE activities, from Jan. 20, 2025, to present," according to the complaint.

The same language was used in the nonprofit’s FOIA requests regarding Apple and Meta’s app removals.

EFF says the DOJ and the DHS have not responded to the FOIA requests, and the nonprofit has “exhausted the applicable administrative remedies.” So it sued, demanding the release of the documents.

“There is a thin line between permissible government persuasion and unconstitutional coercion," Trujillo said. “Important factors include tone, word choice, and any threats of adverse consequences. The underlying communications will help show whether the government broke the law.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.