The use of ICEBlock, a phone app that encourages its users to share information about sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, can endanger those officials and people who use it improperly should be prosecuted for obstructing the law, Lora Ries, director of border security and immigration for the Heritage Foundation, said on Newsmax on Saturday.
"When you think about the riots going on in Los Angeles and the Northwest against ICE agents, this just ratchets up the danger," Ries, a former Department of Homeland Security acting deputy chief of staff, commented on "Wake Up America Weekend."
The DHS, she added, uses the slogan "see something, say something," to encourage citizens to report suspicious activity, particularly regarding terrorism.
But if there are "radical activists who oppose deportation" and use the same slogan to report ICE agents, "that completely turns it on its head and obstructs the enforcement of law," Ries said. "These people should be prosecuted for doing this."
The platform rose to the top of the Apple App Store this week as the Trump administration criticized it and said the tool could put ICE agents at risk.
White House press secretary and ICE acting director Todd Lyons earlier this week cited concerns about the app and said that agents are "facing a 500% increase in assaults" as a result of it, reports NBC News.
Joshua Aaron, the developer of the app, however, said the administration's criticism is "another right-wing fearmongering scare tactic," and that he designed the app to help protect immigrants who fear deportation.
Former federal prosecutor Doug Burns, meanwhile, told Newsmax that on the app's "best day, it's controversial, and on its worst day, it could lead to criminal exposure and liability."
"The fact of the matter is, we've drawn the same distinction over and over, which is, you know, not cooperating versus actually interfering," Burns said. "If somebody uses this app and it ends up blocking or preventing federal agents from effectuating a search warrant or an arrest, that's a problem. And that does violate federal law."
Ries also commented on reports that several July 4 celebrations were canceled this weekend out of fears that ICE agents would be there to detain people.
"I think it's more fear-mongering by leftist politicians," she said. "ICE is not just blindly going into locations to do sweeps. They are going after specific individuals who have committed crimes involving terrorism and the like. And so I think the left is using this to keep people afraid and to keep them continuing to act out against ICE and deportations."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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