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

A judge has granted a preliminary injunction to the “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” Facebook group and the creators of the Eyes Up app to prevent the Trump administration from pressuring the platforms to shut down these projects. Judge George L. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Alonso found that the plaintiffs, Cassandra Rosado and the Kreisau Group, are likely to succeed in their case, which alleges that the government stifled speech protected under the First Amendment by strong-arming Facebook and Apple into subverting ICE surveillance efforts.

Eyes Up and ICE Sightings – Chicagoland both use publicly available information to monitor ICE activity. But after pressure from Trump officials, these were removed from Apple’s App Store and Facebook respectively. Similar apps, including ICEBlock and Red Dot, were also removed from the App Store and Google Play. The lawsuit cites social media posts by former US Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, which demanded the removal of these apps and took credit for them. In a document filed Friday, Alonso called the posts “direct threats.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is defending the plaintiffs, wrote in a post on Twitter that it was “extremely encouraged by this decision.” It continued, “Even if this is not the end of the matter, it is good for the future of our legal fight to ensure that the First Amendment protects the right to publicly discuss, record, and criticize law enforcement.”