ICE block founder's wife fired by DOJ in retaliation for the app

3 months ago 2

The wife of the creator of an app that lets users track the real-time location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents said she has been fired from her job at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Carolyn Feinstein said that she had been dismissed from her auditing job as a "retaliation" for her husband, Joshua Aaron's activism, which ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have condemned as putting federal agents' lives at risk.

The DOJ told Newsweek: "For several weeks, the Department of Justice inquired into this former employee's activities and discovered she has a sizable interest in All U Chart, Inc., the company that holds the IP for ICEBlock. ICEBlock is an app that illegal aliens use to evade capture while endangering the lives of ICE officers by disclosing their location. This DOJ will not tolerate threats against law enforcement or law enforcement officers."

Newsweek also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Joshua Aaron via email for comment.

Why It Matters

The ICEBlock app allows users to access and update a real-time map of ICE activity across the United States. Aaron created it to help people avoid encounters with ICE, and he has repeatedly stated that it is not designed to interfere with law enforcement. However, the Department of Homeland Security has said the app "paints a target on federal law enforcement officers' backs."

What To Know

In an interview with MSW Media on Monday, Feinstein said that she had been planning to spend her entire career at the DOJ and suspected that there were political motivations behind her removal. The Daily Beast published a copy of her termination letter from the department.

"I got an email informing me that I was terminated effectively immediately," Feinstein said. "There was no notice and no phone calls; it was just an immediate termination via email.

"I wasn't just terminated, I was targeted. I was fired as retaliation for my husband's activism. It's probably been about a week and a half since people realized I was married to Joshua Aaron. It was never concealed or secret; I think people just hadn't realized it yet.

"Since then, there has been an outcry for my firing, accusing me of everything from providing information to the app, through my position with the U.S. trustee, to outright treason, and none of that is true.

Aaron has been extremely critical of ICE's actions and compared the deportations to the politics of Nazi Germany while speaking to Newsweek earlier this month.

"When we see ICE agents outside of elementary schools, disappearing college students for their political beliefs or ripping babies from their mothers' arms as they scream for their children, we all know their rhetoric of 'getting rid of the worst of the worst' is a lie," Aaron said.

"As I often say, if you ever wondered what you would've done if you lived in Germany during Hitler's rise to power, wonder no more because you're doing it right now. Developing ICEBlock was my way of joining the fight and giving people a chance to help protect themselves and their communities."

What People Are Saying

Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement to Newsweek following a CNN segment about ICEBlock on July 2: "Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers' backs is sickening.

"My officers and agents are already facing a 500 percent 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 is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade U.S. law. Is this simply reckless 'journalism' or overt activism?"