Judge sides with creators of banned ICE trackers who allege DHS and DOJ violated their First Amendment rights

A judge has granted the creators of the Facebook group “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” and the Eyes Up app a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump administration from forcing the platforms to remove those projects. Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that the plaintiffs, Kassandra Rosado and Kreisau Group, are likely to succeed in their case, which alleges that the government suppressed speech protected under the First Amendment by forcing Facebook and Apple to suppress ICE’s surveillance efforts.

Eyes Up and ICE Sightings – Chicagoland use publicly available information to keep tabs on ICE activity. But under pressure from Trump officials, they were removed from the Apple App Store and Facebook, respectively. Similar apps, including ICEBlock and Red Dot, have also been removed from the App Store and Google Play. The lawsuit cites social media posts from former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that demanded and took credit for the removal of these apps. In a document filed Friday, Alonso called the messages “thinly veiled threats.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is defending the plaintiffs, wrote in an article on X that it was “extremely encouraged by this decision.” He continued: “While this is not the end of the case, it bodes well for the future of our legal fight to ensure that the First Amendment protects the right to discuss, record, and criticize what law enforcement does in public.”