DOJ may face investigation for pressuring Apple, Google to remove apps for tracking ICE agents
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over all its communications with Apple and Google regarding the companies’ decisions to remove apps sharing information about sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Several apps that allowed users to share information about where they had seen ICE members were removed from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store in October. Policy reported that Raskin contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi about the matter and also questioned the agency’s use of force against protesters in carrying out immigration policies set by President Donald Trump.
“The campaign of coercion and censorship, which ultimately targets users of ICE surveillance apps, is a clear effort to silence critics of this administration and suppress any evidence that would expose the administration’s lies, including its Orwellian attempts to cover up the murders of Renée and Alex,” Raskin wrote to Bondi. He’s referring to Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by ICE agents. In both separate incidents, federal leaders’ claims about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were contradicted by eyewitnesses or camera footage, echoing the violent interactions and lies about them that took place during ICE raids in Chicago several months ago.
