A spokesperson using ICE's general press email referred WIRED to a statement issued by acting director Todd M. Lyons on June 30, but did not provide further comment. The White House did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

In the statement, Lyons called CNN’s coverage of the app “reckless and irresponsible.” When reached for comment, Emily Kuhn, senior vice president of communications at CNN, pointed WIRED to a statement from the network saying that reporting on the existence of an app is neither illegal nor an endorsement.

The Trump administration’s rebukes of the app have also focused on the idea that it’s placing ICE agents in danger. Responding to a question about a CNN report on ICEBlock Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “surely, it sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers.” She went on to say, “there’s been a 500 percent increase in violence against ICE agents, law enforcement officers across the country who are just simply trying to do their jobs and remove public safety threats from our communities.”

On June 20, the Department of Homeland Security put out a press release citing the purported 500 percent increase, however its link for the statistic directs users to a Breitbart article that just quotes the DHS without providing in-depth details to support the number.

“ICE and the Trump administration are under the misimpression that law enforcement in the United States is entitled to operate in secret,” says Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation. Stern points to ICE agents wearing masks while operating in public and accusations by the administration targeted at journalists who report on ICE as examples of this “misimpression.”...