Border czar Tom Homan criticized CNN on Monday after the network aired a segment promoting a mobile app that allows users to track the locations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
ICEBlock is an app that invites users to mark sightings of ICE agents on a map, which then sends alerts to other users within a five-mile radius. Its promotion has sparked backlash amid growing concern over rising violence against ICE officers.
Homan appeared on Fox News where he called the app “simply disgusting,” adding, “ any network that covers that is disgusting as well.”
“It’s only a matter of time before ICE officers are going to be ambushed by some nut, like what happened in LA, throwing a Molotov cocktail, throwing bricks at these officers,” Homan said. “This is just disgusting at every level, so I hope DOJ dives in this deeply, because ICE is concentrating on public safety threats and national security threats.”
CNN’s segment on the app Monday morning explained that the app’s developer “says he does not want people interfering with those officers’ activity, but he does want people to be able to avoid them altogether if they want.”
“So you open the app — it looks like a map — and users can tap the map to report an ICE sighting in their area. And then everybody who uses the platform within five miles of that sighting will get a push alert,” explained CNN’s Clare Duffy.
ICE officials have recently reported a 500 percent increase in assaults on officers during immigration enforcement operations. The Department of Homeland Security has linked the rise in attacks to inflammatory rhetoric by local politicians critical of the agency.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also condemned CNN’s coverage.
“It sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers,” Leavitt said. “It’s unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe.”
