Government agrees to avoid suppressing app Indiana man built to track ICE

The federal government has agreed to take no actions to suppress or limit an app made by a Brown County, Indiana, man that has been used to track U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement activities.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin have agreed not to pressure Apple to suppress or continue to suppress the “Eyes Up” application created by Mark Hodges, according to a federal court order filed Friday.

Blanche and Mullin also agreed to do nothing to pressure Facebook to suppress the “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” Facebook group,

Hodges had sued then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in February for targeting his app, which was developed to track and store videos of federal law enforcement operations.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hodges and Kassandra Rosado, a Chicago woman who created the Facebook group.

The Eyes Up app, which became available last year through the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, allows users to upload, record or access stored videos of ICE activity and police encounters, according to Hodge’s company, Kreisau Group LLC.

Uploaded videos are location- and time-stamped, providing a detailed map to view each incident. (The name of Hodges’ company is a reference to a group of dissidents in Nazi Germany known as the Kreisau Circle.)

Hodges had argued that Bondi and Noem violated his constitutional free-speech rights after they allegedly “strong-armed” Apple into delisting the app.

In April, an Illinois district court judge granted a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case to halt the government’s allegedly coercive acts.

Court papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said both sides have since moved to make that preliminary injunction permanent.

“I’m glad the government agreed to stop targeting my speech, but it shouldn’t take a lawsuit to get the government to respect our constitutional rights,” Hodges said in a statement Friday from FIRE. “People have a right to know what their government is doing. I hope that thanks to this lawsuit, others can share what they see and hear without facing this kind of censorship.”

Representatives from the U.S. departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Indiana Lawyer late Friday afternoon.