The Trump administration could prosecute CNN for its recent promotion of an app that allows phone users to learn if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is active in their area, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday.
CNN recently did a segment promoting the ICEBlock app, which would alert anyone using the app that ICE is reportedly active near the user.
“We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations,” Noem said in a video posted to X.
“And we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them with the partnership of Pam, if we can, because what they’re doing, we believe, is illegal,” Noem said, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
As a reporter was asking the question about prosecuting CNN, President Donald Trump chimed in, “It’s OK with me.”
.@Sec_Noem slams CNN for pushing an app to track ICE personnel: “What they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement.” pic.twitter.com/kugEMvDjgC
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 1, 2025
Trump noted that CNN might be prosecuted over something else, as well.
“They may be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran,” Trump said, according to Newsweek.
Should CNN be prosecuted?
On Monday, Noem lashed out on X at the app and CNN’s fawning support for it.
“This sure looks like obstruction of justice. Our brave ICE law enforcement face a 500% increase in assaults against them,” she wrote.
“If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Other Trump administration officials also said the CNN segment crossed a line. Border czar Tom Homan called the covered “disgusting,” according to The Hill.
“I can’t believe we live in a world where the men and women in law enforcement are the bad guys. It’s already a dangerous job,” he said.
“This is horrendous that a national media outlet would be out there trying to forecast law enforcement operations. I think DOJ needs to look at this. They’re crossing that line.”
“We need to send a strong message that we need to protect the law enforcement officers,” he continued.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons called the CNN segment “reckless and irresponsible” in a statement posted on ICE’s website.
“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,” he said.
“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?”
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