There’s nothing subtle about the Gestapo-style tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Armed gangs of officers, often masked and anonymous, are openly engaged in a white nationalist mission to kidnap many thousands of people — stalking court houses, farms, construction sites, and retail stores, and ripping apart the fabric of communities nationwide.

The Trump administration wants America paying attention to this sickening spectacle of mass deportations: broadcasting ICE raids featuring television personality Dr. Phil; meme-posting chained men sent to a gulag in El Salvador; and sharing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s various “ICE Barbie” photo ops.

What the Trump administration doesn’t want, however, is for anyone to hold ICE agents accountable. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

The latest cause of outrage is ICEBlock, an app that lets users share local ICE sightings. On Monday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons condemned the app and called CNN “reckless and irresponsible” for broadcasting a brief interview with its developer.

“Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening,” said Lyons. “My officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults, and going on live television to announce an app that lets anyone zero in on their locations is like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone.”

CNN did not, of course, advertise the app. The network interviewed its developer, Joshua Aaron, because it is newsworthy that 20,000 users, many based in Los Angeles, are looking for ways to share information and keep people safe. Public ICE sightings are just that: public. ICEBlock is just one example of a larger story of autonomous, community efforts nationwide to share such information, be it in large Signal threads or social media alerts. Sharing this information is protected speech and a public service.

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