White House Border Czar Tom Homan took CNN to task for using an app that traces ICE agents, calling the move “simply disgusting.”
The app is called ICEBlock and it pinpoints the location of ICE agents, per the Daily Wire.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt became aware of it after Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan brought it to her attention along with telling her CNN talked about it on air.
“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.”
Homan chimed in on the matter Monday, saying the app was “simply disgusting.” He added “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 L.A., 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 Clare Duffy spoke about the app Monday morning and said the app 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,” Duffy said.
Both President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday they want to prosecute CNN for its reporting on the app, per Fox News.
“Yeah, we’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that,” Noem said during a visit to “Alligator Alcatraz,” a migrant detention facility just opened in the Everglades.
“Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute with the partnership of Pam [Bondi] if we can, because what they are doing we believe is illegal,” Noem said.
Trump reiterated his claim of fake news.
“And they may very well be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran,” Trump said. “They were given totally false reports. It was totally obliterated. And our people have to be celebrated, not come home and say, ‘What do you mean we didn’t hit the target?’ We hit the target quickly. You know, the pilots came home, they said we hit the target quickly. So they may very well be prosecuted for that. What they did there, we think, is totally illegal.”
Homan said this app is dangerous to ICE agents.
“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Homan said, adding assaults on ICE agents have climbed 500%. “This shouldn’t be an issue anybody is against.”
He added it is already a dangerous job.
“These guys are putting their lives on the line every day going after the worst of the worst, and a national security threat, and this app makes it much more dangerous,” Homan said. “It’s incredible that those who enforce law, all of a sudden they’re the bad guys, the ones who break the law, they’re victims. It’s disgusting.”
