Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort

Hey there, Joseph here. It's now been more than a week since CBP released an app that lets local cops hunt immigrants with facial recognition. Google has finally responded to my requests for comment, and the company makes no indication it plans to remove the app. I spoke to the developers of apps that Google and Apple have removed: those for reporting sightings of ICE. They see an obvious disconnect between Google describing ICE officials as a vulnerable group, while hosting an app for finding undocumented people. Read their responses below.

And in just under a week's time—Wednesday, 19th November, at 1PM ET—we will host our latest FOIA Forum! In this live-streamed event we'll show you how researchers and others found local cops were doing lookups for ICE in a nationwide surveillance network. Get access here.

Google is hosting a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, and tell local cops whether to contact ICE about the person, while simultaneously removing apps designed to warn local communities about the presence of ICE officials. ICE-spotting app developers tell 404 Media the decision to host CBP’s new app, and Google’s description of ICE officials as a vulnerable group in need of protection, shows that Google has made a choice on which side to support during the Trump administration’s violent mass deportation effort.

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Google removed certain apps used to report sightings of ICE officials, and “then they immediately turned around and approved an app that helps the government unconstitutionally target an actual vulnerable group. That's inexcusable,” Mark, the creator of Eyes Up, an app that aims to preserve and map evidence of ICE abuses, said. 404 Media only used the creator’s first name to protect them from retaliation. Their app is currently available on the Google Play Store, but Apple removed it from the App Store.

“Google wanted to ‘not be evil’ back in the day. Well, they're evil now,” Mark added.

The CBP app, called Mobile Identify and launched last week, is for local and state law enforcement agencies that are part of an ICE program that grants them certain immigration-related powers. The 287(g) Task Force Model (TFM) program allows those local officers to make immigration arrests during routine police enforcement, and “essentially turns police officers into ICE agents,” according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). At the time of writing, ICE has TFM agreements with 596 agencies in 34 states, according to ICE’s website.

After a user scans someone’s face with Mobile Identify, the app tells users to contact ICE and provides a reference number, or to not detain the person depending on the result, a source with knowledge of the app previously told 404 Media. 404 Media also examined the app’s code and found multiple references to face scanning.

A Google spokesperson told 404 Media in an email “This app is only usable with an official government login and does not publicly broadcast specific user data or location. Play has robust policies and when we find a violation, we take action.”

A screenshot of Mobile Identify's Google Play Store page.

Last month, Google removed an app called Red Dot. That app, in much the same vein as the more well-known ICEBlock, lets ordinary people report sightings of ICE officials on a map interface. People could then receive alerts of nearby ICE activity. “Anonymous community-driven tool for reporting and receiving ICE activity alerts,” Red Dot’s website reads.

Red Dot’s removal came after a cascading series of events starting in September. That month 29-year-old Joshua Jahn opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas, killing two detainees and wounding another. Authorities say Jahn used his phone to search for ICE-spotting apps, including ICEBlock, before the shooting, Fox reported. A short while after, the Department of Justice contacted Apple and demanded it remove ICEBlock, which Apple did, despite such an app being First Amendment protected speech. 

Both Apple and Google then removed Red Dot, which works similarly, from their respective app stores. Google previously told 404 Media it did not receive any outreach from the Department of Justice about the issue at the time. The company said it removed apps that share the location of what it describes as a vulnerable group: a veiled reference to ICE officials.

A representative for Red Dot told 404 Media in an email they “see 100% dissonance” in Google’s position. Google removed the app claiming it harms ICE agents “while continuing to host a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants for detention and deportation.”

“This is unequivocally morally and ethically wrong. We are deeply concerned about the number of violations that must be occurring to deploy AI facial recognition on people for the purpose of making arrests. It is a clear and unacceptable case of selective application of their policies,” they added. The representative did not provide their name.

Google’s decision to host CBP’s immigrant-hunting app while removing one designed to warn people about the presence of ICE has concerned free speech experts.

“Providing tech services to supercharge ICE operations while blocking tools that support accountability of ICE officers is entirely backwards,” Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Free Expression Project, told 404 Media. “ICE is currently deploying armed, masked agents to take people from daycares, street corners, parking lots, and even their own homes, often based on paper thin suspicion and frequently with unjustifiable use of force. It is the mothers, fathers, children, friends, neighbors and coworkers being targeted by ICE who are most vulnerable in this situation.”

“ICE agents don’t want to face accountability for their actions, but documenting ICE and other police activities is essential to guard against abuse of power and improper conduct. Courts have recognized for decades that tracking and reporting on law enforcement activities is an important and time honored public accountability mechanism,” she continued. 

Ruane said apps like this are an exercise of First Amendment protected rights. “As with any other app, if someone misuses it to engage in unlawful activity, they can be held accountable. Google should restore these services immediately,” she added.

Joshua Aaron, the creator of ICEBlock, told 404 Media “Big tech continues to put profit and power over people, under the guise of keeping us safe. Right now we are at a turning point in our nation’s history. It is time to choose sides; fascism or morality? Big tech has made their choice.”