WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel shared on Thursday that the gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas yesterday had searched online for apps that tracked the locations of ICE agents.
Such apps are a “casting call to invite bad actors to invite law enforcement officers,” Marcos Charles, ICE’s Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, said at a Thursday press conference. “It’s no different than giving the hit man the location of their intended target, and this is exactly what we saw happen in Dallas yesterday.”
Charles called out mainstream media outlets for amplifying these apps, lamenting that “The media has been amplifying these apps even as we warned them it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement.”
“We truly wish we didn’t have to say we told you so, but here we are.”
CNN came under fire earlier this year for its coverage of one such app, “ICE Block.” CNN’s story and segment dove into the intricacies of the app, sharing how it allows users to report ICE sightings and pinpoint the locations of federal agents in order to help illegal aliens avoid arrest.
Users could be anonymous, CNN noted.
“‘I wanted to do something to fight back’: This iPhone app alerts users to nearby ICE sightings,” reads the headline of CNN reporter Claire Duffy’s piece. Her coverage shares that “users can add a pin on a map showing where they spotted agents — along with optional notes, like what officers were wearing or what kind of car they were driving,” adding: “Other users within a five-mile radius will then receive a push alert notifying them of the sighting.”
ICE officials said in June that CNN’s segment endangered the lives of federal agents, and, pressed by The Daily Wire about the matter during a June press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that the app sounded like “an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers.”
“It’s unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe,” Leavitt said in June. The White House’s opposition to the coverage drew fire from liberal media outlets like MSNBC — which criticized the Trump administration and also interviewed ICE Block founder Joshua Aaron “to share his motive behind creating the app and why he’s not afraid of retaliation from the administration.”
On Thursday, following the tragic shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, Leavitt slammed CNN once again.
“Three months ago, CNN irresponsibly gave free publicity to an app that recklessly shares the location of ICE Agents,” Leavitt said. “It has now been revealed the leftist lunatic shooter who opened fire on the Dallas ICE Facility was using one of these apps.”
“The liberal media is complicit in the increased threats and violence against ICE,” Leavitt argued. “We see it every day — they are quick to write a fake story portraying ICE in a negative light, often omitting the real facts of these cases, and they hardly ever write about the vicious criminals that ICE is arresting every day to make our country safer.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/liberal-media-highlighted-anti-ice-apps-a-murderer-used-the-apps-to-kill