WASHINGTON – On Monday, the developer of an iPhone application designed to report sightings of U.S. immigration officers filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, citing violations of free speech. The suit claims that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi exerted her governmental authority to pressure Apple into removing the app.

In October, Apple took down ICEBlock and similar applications from its app store. This decision followed Bondi’s assertion that such apps endangered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials by facilitating the monitoring of their activities within local communities.

Joshua Aaron, the creator of the ICEBlock app, contends in his lawsuit that these governmental actions infringe upon First Amendment rights.

The legal action further requests a federal court to shield the Texas-based developer from legal action, accusing Attorney General Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan of issuing “unlawful threats” to investigate and prosecute Aaron for his involvement in creating the app.

The Department of Justice has yet to issue a response to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.

ICEBlock was the most widely used of the ICE-tracking apps in Apple’s app store until Bondi said in October that her office reached out to Apple “demanding that they remove ICEBlock” and claiming that it “is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.”

Apple soon complied, sending an email to Aaron that said it would block further downloads of the app because new information “provided to Apple by law enforcement” showed the app broke the app store rules.

According to the email, which Aaron shared with The Associated Press in October, Apple said the app violated the company’s policies “because its purpose is to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”