Another Big Tech player melts over ICE

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

The Department of Justice has been targeting groups intended to protect people against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ violent attacks, and now another tech giant has joined in. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta removed a Facebook group intended to locate ICE agents in Chicago amid massive immigration raids. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the coordinated effort, claiming that the Facebook group was being used to “dox and target” ICE agents. 

A cartoon by Clay Jones.

“The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs,” Bondi wrote on X. “The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.”

In a statement provided to Daily Kos, a Meta spokesperson defended the company’s cooperation.

“This Group was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm,” they said.

When asked to provide specific examples of “coordinated harm” in the group, Meta did not respond. 

Daily Kos also contacted the DOJ but did not receive a response before publication. 

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s close relationship with tech billionaires has helped ICE keep its agents as unidentifiable as possible. Earlier this month, Apple quietly removed apps from its digital store that tracked ICE activity. And Google has similarly caved to Trump. 

In sanctuary cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, Trump has sent in swaths of ICE agents to carry out raids. In some cases, people have been pulled from their workplaces, and pregnant women have been manhandled while taken into custody. And out of fear, families are hiding in their homes, missing work to avoid being kidnapped by ICE. 

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency as a result of Trump’s immigration raids. 

Still, the digital means of protecting immigrants are becoming too far out of reach as tech companies eagerly get on board to help Trump’s secret police.