MIAMI — A new app allows people to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in real time.
But is it legal?
That’s the question being raised about the app Coqui, which allows people to mark locations where they see ICE activity.
Its New York-based founder, Peter, who asked that his last name not be shared, spoke to Local 10 News. He said the app doesn’t collect any personal information on its users.
“There’s the need to do it for the desire to take care of the people that you love, but there’s also the need to do it to stand up for what’s right,“ he said. ”There (are) thousands of people signing up every day in solidarity.”
Peter said he named the app after the coqui, the famed Puerto Rican tree frog and the app’s alert noise mimics the amphibian. He said he lived on the island for several years.
“It’s a small little frog, but it’s really strong and resilient, and it’s super loud,” he said. “It’s a symbol of, like, solidarity and unity and resilience.”
Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice, however, are taking aim at apps like Coqui.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate the use of apps that allow illegal aliens to evade capture and disclose the location of our law enforcement,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to Local 10 News. “Any threats to the safety of federal agents will be taken with the utmost seriousness and thoroughly investigated to ensure justice is served.”
A similar sentiment came from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who provided the following statement to Local 10 News:
“This sure looks like obstruction of justice,” said Noem. “Our brave ICE law enforcement face a nearly 830% increase in assaults against them. 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.”
But Coqui’s founder said what it’s doing is “completely legal.”
“We’re not aiding and abetting, we’re not interfering, we’re not obstructing,” he said.
He likens it to apps like Waze, which alert people to police on roadways.
Legal analyst David Weinstein said it comes down to intent.
“It is the battle of the words here,” Weinstein said. “If they simply make a post that said ‘I was out driving and I saw a large gathering of what appeared to be ICE agents at the corner of walk and don’t walk,’ that is simply informing the public of what you have seen.”
Weinstein said under the federal statute for the crime of aiding and abetting, “you have to willfully cause an act to be done and counsel someone else to commit an offense.”
He said under the state statute for accessory after the fact, “that is someone also who would be aiding somebody after a crime that they know has been committed or avoiding apprehension for a crime that has been committed.”
He said under both statutes, the key is that the offender has to know that they are “aiding and abetting somebody and counseling them to either commit a crime or evade capture of a crime that they have been committing.
“If what they are doing is notifying people that immigration agents are in a particular area, unless they know that the people who are receiving notifications are either pending detention for a crime they have committed ― whether it is an immigration crime or not ― or they are pending removal based on an adjudicated order, or whether or not they’re in an overstay situation and could be subject to deportation, that is what they are going to have to prove."
Which, Weinstein said, “is going to be difficult.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Coqui app said that its purpose is “awareness.”
“The app does not track agents, store user data, or identify individuals,” the statement reads in part. “It was designed with legal experts to comply fully with federal law and is grounded in First Amendment protections that guarantee the right to observe and share information about public activity.
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