Apple pressured to explain Trump role in ICE-tracking app removals

苹果公司面临压力，需解释特朗普政府在下架移民执法局（ICE）追踪应用中的角色

Apple continues to face backlash for removing ICE-tracking apps like ICEBlock from the App Store, a drastic step that seemed to be triggered by Trump administration claims that the apps endangered officers. 苹果公司因从 App Store 下架 ICEBlock 等 ICE 追踪应用而持续面临强烈抵制。这一激进举措似乎是由特朗普政府声称这些应用危及执法人员安全所引发的。

According to US Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Apple has no evidence to support claims that apps raised safety concerns. Instead, the lawmaker accused Apple of using immigrant deaths with no connection to the apps to justify censoring Americans who have the right to record ICE activity. 据美国众议员杰米·拉斯金（马里兰州民主党籍）称，苹果公司没有任何证据支持这些应用引发安全担忧的说法。相反，这位议员指责苹果公司利用与这些应用毫无关联的移民死亡事件，来为审查那些有权记录 ICE 活动的美国人寻找借口。

It appears that Apple is “working with the government to violate its customers’ First Amendment rights to record and report on the activities of their own government,” Raskin said in a letter to Apple sent Monday, CNN reported. Raskin had been hounding Apple for answers for months. 据 CNN 报道，拉斯金在周一发给苹果公司的一封信中表示，苹果公司似乎正在“与政府合作，侵犯其客户记录和报道政府活动的宪法第一修正案权利”。拉斯金几个月来一直追问苹果公司以寻求答案。

In July, Apple finally explained to Raskin that ICEBlock was removed, along with other apps, after a fatal shooting left two detainees dead at a Dallas ICE office, CNN reported. As an earlier CNN report explained, the shooter in that case, Joshua Jahn, fired bullets indiscriminately into the ICE facility before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot. 据 CNN 报道，今年 7 月，苹果公司终于向拉斯金解释称，在达拉斯一家 ICE 办公室发生导致两名被拘留者死亡的枪击事件后，ICEBlock 与其他应用一同被下架。正如 CNN 此前报道所解释的那样，该案枪手约书亚·贾恩（Joshua Jahn）在向 ICE 设施无差别开火后，最终开枪自杀身亡。

Jahn left notes saying that he “hoped his actions would give ICE agents real terror of being gunned down.” At that time, the US attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Nancy Larson, highlighted the “tragic irony” that it was a detainee who was killed during the attacks, CNN’s report said. 贾恩留下的字条称，他“希望自己的行为能让 ICE 特工真正感受到被枪杀的恐惧”。据 CNN 报道，当时美国德克萨斯北区联邦检察官南希·拉尔森（Nancy Larson）强调了袭击中被杀的竟是被拘留者这一“悲剧性的讽刺”。

But the Department of Homeland Security, along with FBI director Kash Patel, has since claimed that the incident showed agents were being targeted. DHS also frequently cites an internal October 2025 statistic claiming that ICE officers face an 8,000 percent increase in death threats. The agency will not release data to let independent parties verify that claim. 但国土安全部（DHS）以及联邦调查局（FBI）局长卡什·帕特尔（Kash Patel）此后声称，该事件表明特工们正成为攻击目标。国土安全部还经常引用一份 2025 年 10 月的内部统计数据，声称 ICE 官员面临的死亡威胁增加了 8,000%。该机构拒绝公布数据以供独立第三方核实这一说法。

Additionally, Patel has said that the Texas shooter “searched for apps that tracked ICE agents’ locations.” But Raskin pushed back on that claim, too, telling Apple that there is “no evidence” that the shooter used ICE-tracking apps. And even if he did, “he did not need a tracking app to locate the fixed position of a government building” and “is reported to have found the address using an app that comes standard on Apple devices,” Raskin’s letter said. 此外，帕特尔曾表示，德州枪手“搜索过追踪 ICE 特工位置的应用”。但拉斯金也反驳了这一说法，他告诉苹果公司，没有“证据”表明枪手使用了 ICE 追踪应用。拉斯金在信中写道，即使他用了，“他也不需要追踪应用来定位政府建筑的固定位置”，而且“据报道，他是使用苹果设备自带的应用找到该地址的”。

“There appears to be no direct connection between the Dallas incident and the apps you removed,” Raskin said. “达拉斯事件与你们下架的应用之间似乎没有直接联系，”拉斯金说道。

Apple pressured to share DHS communications

苹果公司面临压力，需分享与国土安全部的沟通记录

To ensure that no Americans’ core speech rights are violated by removals unconstitutionally ordered by the government, Raskin has asked Apple to “send a full list of the apps it removed following concerns from the Justice Department” so that it will finally be possible to “conduct an independent review of those removal decisions.” 为了确保美国人的核心言论权利不因政府违宪下令的下架行为而受到侵犯，拉斯金要求苹果公司“发送一份在司法部提出担忧后下架的应用完整列表”，以便最终能够“对这些下架决定进行独立审查”。

Federal officials have insisted that Apple acted on its own. However, in a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration officials of censoring watchdogs, ICEBlock creator Joshua Aaron told the court that officials publicly bragged about getting the app removed. 联邦官员坚称苹果公司是自主行动。然而，在一项指控特朗普政府官员审查监督机构的诉讼中，ICEBlock 的开发者约书亚·亚伦（Joshua Aaron）向法院表示，官员们曾公开吹嘘自己促成了该应用的下架。

And in Apple’s July letter to Raskin—which was signed by Timothy Powderly, Apple’s senior director of government affairs—the iPhone maker seemed to confirm this. Powderly specifically cited agency reports of a “significant increase in ICE activity and threats against ICE” as triggering the follow-up review of ICE-tracking apps. 在苹果公司 7 月致拉斯金的信中（由苹果政府事务高级总监蒂莫西·鲍德利签署），这家 iPhone 制造商似乎证实了这一点。鲍德利特别提到，机构报告称“ICE 的活动和针对 ICE 的威胁显著增加”，这触发了对 ICE 追踪应用的后续审查。

Apple claimed it was acting to protect both officers and detainees, ultimately deciding that sharing “precise location information about ICE officers (and, as a result, other individuals who may be in proximity to ICE agents, such as protestors or detainees)” provides “a potential roadmap for targeted violence and creating a significant risk of harm.” 苹果公司声称其行为是为了保护官员和被拘留者，最终认定分享“关于 ICE 官员（以及因此可能在 ICE 特工附近的其他个人，如抗议者或被拘留者）的精确位置信息”提供了“针对性暴力的潜在路线图，并造成了重大的伤害风险”。

The company “does not take decisions about removing apps from the App Store lightly, but acts when it must—especially when there are serious concerns that an app is creating safety risks,” Powderly said. 鲍德利表示，该公司“不会轻易做出从 App Store 下架应用的决定，但当必须采取行动时——尤其是当有严重担忧认为某应用造成安全风险时——就会采取行动”。

Raskin remains dubious that records will show the apps posed any risks. On Bluesky, Aaron did not comment directly on CNN’s report, but he did boost an ICEBlock post that thanked Raskin for continuing to press Apple to explain the removals. “Apple’s sticking to their story even though everyone can see this was jawboning plain as day,” ICEBlock’s post said. 拉斯金仍然怀疑记录能否证明这些应用构成了任何风险。在 Bluesky 上，亚伦没有直接评论 CNN 的报道，但他转发了 ICEBlock 的一条帖子，感谢拉斯金继续向苹果施压要求解释下架原因。ICEBlock 的帖子写道：“尽管每个人都能看出这就是赤裸裸的施压，但苹果公司仍坚持他们的说辞。”

Trump admin denies app removals are retaliation

特朗普政府否认下架应用是报复行为

The Trump administration has asked the court to dismiss Aaron’s lawsuit, claiming that Apple independently chose to moderate that content, despite comments from agency officials suggesting otherwise. It doesn’t matter that former officials like Pam Bondi publicly took credit for removing ICEBlock from the App Store, boasting that she made the “demand” and “Apple did so.” 特朗普政府已请求法院驳回亚伦的诉讼，声称苹果是自主选择对内容进行审核，尽管机构官员的言论暗示并非如此。即便像帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）这样的前官员公开将下架 ICEBlock 的功劳揽在自己身上，吹嘘她提出了“要求”且“苹果照做了”，这也不重要。

Those comments were merely officials expressing opinions about Apple’s promotion of supposedly dangerous apps, they argued. They’re hoping the court will agree that Aaron has not uncovered evidence of communications that can be “reasonably understood to convey a threat of adverse government action” against Apple “if Apple chose not to remove ICEBlock from the App Store.” 他们辩称，这些评论仅仅是官员们对苹果推广所谓危险应用发表的个人意见。他们希望法院同意亚伦并未发现任何可以“被合理理解为传达了政府不利行动威胁”的沟通证据，即如果苹果选择不从 App Store 下架 ICEBlock，政府将采取行动。

But in an August ruling, the Second Circuit recently upheld that courts broadly recognize “a First Amendment right to record law enforcement activity in public,” Aaron argued in a recent filing that could influence how the case is decided at this stage. 但亚伦在最近的一份文件中辩称，在 8 月的一项裁决中，第二巡回法院最近支持了法院广泛承认“宪法第一修正案赋予在公共场合记录执法活动的权利”，这可能会影响该案在现阶段的裁决。

In his opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss, Aaron maintained that the record showed that the government was acting to censor Americans. As he argued: The then-Attorney General told the nation she demanded removal of the app, Apple reversed a decision it previously reached after a thorough five-week legal review citing only “information provided to Apple by law enforcement,” and the then-Attorney General characterized Apple’s response as “compliance.” If the case proceeds, which Aaron expects it will, discovery would likely reveal the actual communications. 在反对政府驳回动议时，亚伦坚持认为记录显示政府的行为旨在审查美国人。正如他所辩称的：当时的司法部长告诉全国她要求下架该应用，苹果公司在经过五周彻底的法律审查后推翻了之前的决定，仅引用了“执法部门提供给苹果的信息”，而当时的司法部长将苹果的反应描述为“合规”。如果案件继续进行（亚伦预计会如此），证据开示程序可能会揭示真实的沟通内容。