How does ICEBlock work?

ICEBlock is a free mobile platform that allows users to report ICE activity within a five-mile radius while maintaining full anonymity.

The easy-to-use surveillance app, taglined “See Something, Tap Something,” requires just two taps to submit reports of nearby ICE sightings, with no signups or usernames necessary. According to iPhone screenshots, submissions show timestamps, notes detailing what officers are wearing or the kind of car they are driving, exact locations of ICE’s presence pinpointed on Apple Maps, and a user’s current distance from said sightings (e.g., 0.25 miles away). Users also receive real-time updates through push notifications.

Anonymity is hailed as a key feature of the app. Crowdsourced and “completely anonymous,” as its developer purports, ICEBlock does not collect or store personal data, ensuring it is “impossible” to trace reports back to individual users.

The software’s privacy policy says, “We will never require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information, including but not limited to your name, phone number, and postal address.”

ICEBlock is available only on Apple’s App Store, where it sits at the top of the social networking chart and is No. 3 among free-to-download apps, above Google, TikTok, and Instagram, as of Tuesday.

According to ICEBlock, Androids are excluded because, pursuant to the terms of service, device IDs must be stored, and the government can subpoena access to this information accordingly.

ICEBlock is appropriate for ages nine and up and is translated into 13 foreign languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

Its icon depicts a melted ice cube, meant to jab at ICE and illustrate the app’s purpose: undercutting deportation operations.

Who developed it?

Texas-based tech developer Joshua Aaron is the little-known creator behind ICEBlock. Aaron, a longtime software engineer, supposedly single-handedly coded and financed the app without outside support. No plans are in place to monetize the ad-free app.

Previously an Apple employee, Aaron went on to start his own IT consulting firm, Mac Genius, in California, before dabbling in 3D designs and photorealistic rendering.

Aaron is receiving free publicity from influencers on Bluesky, the Left’s alternative to X. Some high-profile accounts are sharing the link to Aaron’s bare-bones website, www.ICEBlock.app, which provides scant details on the app’s development.

Following his CNN appearance, Aaron publicly solicits interviews with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O’Donnell for further mainstream media exposure.

Federal backlash

Law enforcement officials in the Trump administration are raising safety concerns over the implications of Aaron’s anti-deportation app.

In a statement, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons called CNN’s apparent promotion “irresponsible” to the point of willful endangerment.

“Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening,” Lyons said. “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.”

Lyons then accused CNN of “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.”

“Is this simply reckless ‘journalism’ or overt activism?” he questioned.

On X, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, “This sure looks like obstruction of justice.” She vowed, “If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Talking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warned Aaron he “better watch out” and scolded CNN for affording him airtime. “He’s giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are,” Bondi said of Aaron. “He cannot do that, and we are looking at it; we are looking at him.” Threatening the lives of law enforcement officers is not protected speech, Bondi asserted.

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Notably, ICEBlock is modeled after the navigation app Waze, which lets users anonymously drop pins on a digital map showing where they last saw police speed traps.

In December 2014, multiple police agencies campaigned to pressure Google, the parent company of Waze, to turn off its cop-locator component, saying the app is a stalking tool for would-be police killers. That year, at a meeting of the National Sheriffs Association winter conference, police officers pointed to the Instagram account of Ismaaily Abdullah Brinsley, who posted a Waze screenshot with messages threatening police weeks prior to murdering two New York officers.

As for ICEBlock, an in-app Disclaimer does declare: “Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only. It is not to be used for the purpose of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement.”

Aaron told Time magazine that ICEBlock is intended to help illegal immigrants avoid ICE encounters, not equip others to involve themselves in altercations.

“The app is to inform, not obstruct,” Aaron insisted. “This is to have people avoid having that confrontation in the first place.”

On why he designed this “early warning system,” Aaron told CNN, “I wanted to do something to fight back.” 

Aaron, a self-described “Proud #Antifa” activist, is encouraging followers on Bluesky to “#resist #byanymeansnecessary,” even through violent means, it appears.

“To all our so-called leaders calling for more peaceful protests, when are you going to wake up? These people laugh at that,” Aaron posted. “It’s great to organize in the streets, but we have to start fighting back. When they shoot at journalists and women walking home, we must respond in kind.”

Other times on social media, Aaron instructed illegal immigrants under ICE arrest, “Do not comply. Do not go quietly. Fight back as hard as you can.”

An online movement

According to registration records for its domain name, ICEBlock was conceived as early as February, but it is not the first of its kind.

Other tech-savvy activists have undertaken more localized endeavors, such as in Suffolk County, New York. Days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Islip Forward, a left-wing group in the Long Island city of Islip, launched an ICE tracker to document deportation activities around town. The tool features footage viewable via YouTube, on-the-ground photographs, and accompanying blurbs about these ICE-involved instances. After recording over 10,000 uses over one week of its startup, the app has since expanded to cover the entire county and neighboring Nassau County.

Those products, however, are not nationwide. ICEBlock is the first widely known ICE-monitoring app to successfully scale surveillance efforts nationwide, with a growing so-called “#ICEBlockArmy.”

Some similar ventures are trying to spread nationally, too. The webpage People Over Papers, which started with flagging ICE alerts in the state of Washington, now hosts a minute-by-minute map of daily occurrences spanning the United States on Padlet, a virtual data visualizer. A team of moderators reviews the public reporting, but users are advised to cross-reference the unconfirmed information with their respective rapid-response activist networks.

ResistMap, a project of Turn Left PAC months in the making, will solicit ICE reports through a form, visualize verified filings, and offer opt-in texts alerting users to lurking law enforcement officers. The app is ready to go live once security checks are completed and volunteer analysts finish training.

On the Democratic Party’s primary fundraising platform, ActBlue, the Turn Left PAC has raised nearly $80,000 of its $100,000 goal, telling donors, “Every dollar strengthens our defenses.” According to the active ActBlue campaign, $35 pays for an hour of development time, $250 equals one week of encrypted cloud servers, $500 covers the cost of infiltration testing, and $5,000 will help deploy its backup infrastructure.