The United States government agreed in court on Friday, November 13, 2026, to permanently stop pressing Apple and Facebook to restrict two platforms that report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity — an app called Eyes Up, created by Mark Hodges of Brown County, Indiana, and a Facebook group called “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland,” run by Kae Rosado. The agreement resolves a First Amendment lawsuit brought by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE.
Source: Reuters via WNFL
According to FIRE, as part of the agreement to resolve the case, the government agreed to make permanent the preliminary injunction the court had previously entered in favour of the plaintiffs. Indiana Public Media reported the same outcome on Friday afternoon, saying Hodges had won a pledge in court that the federal government would not interfere with the website he created to gather video documentation of ICE actions.
Source: Indiana Public Media (IPM)
The order was issued on Friday by U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso. In the words quoted by Reuters from that order, the federal government “shall take no actions, formal or informal, to demand or pressure” Facebook and Apple to suppress the “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” Facebook group and the Eyes Up app. That wording matters: it covers not only a formal legal demand, but also informal pressure behind the scenes.
Source: Reuters via WNFL
The Indiana man behind Eyes Up
Mark Hodges is from Brown County, in southern Indiana. His platform, Eyes Up, was launched in August last year, according to Indiana Public Media, and it gathers video documentation of actions by ICE — in practice, a place where people can share and watch recordings of immigration enforcement operations as they happen in their communities.
Source: Indiana Public Media (IPM)
In October last year, Apple removed the app from its store, citing guidance from law enforcement. In a statement to Fox News at the time, then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Apple did so at her demand, Indiana Public Media reported. That removal is a central fact in the lawsuit: the plaintiffs alleged the government used its authority to get a private platform to silence speech it did not like.
Source: Indiana Public Media (IPM)
The Chicago Facebook group in the same case
The second plaintiff, Kae Rosado, ran the Facebook page and group “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland,” which reported ICE activity in the Chicago area. FIRE alleged that Facebook's disabling of Rosado's group, in response to demands by federal officials, violated her free speech rights — the same kind of violation it alleged over Apple's removal of Eyes Up under government pressure, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters via WNFL
FIRE sued the federal departments of Justice and Homeland Security in February, Reuters reported. The departments' top officials were the defendants in the lawsuit. FIRE represented both Hodges and Rosado, Indiana Public Media reported.
Source: Reuters via WNFL
Judge Jorge Alonso's order, as quoted by Reuters: the federal government “shall take no actions, formal or informal, to demand or pressure” Apple or Facebook to suppress the Eyes Up app or the “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland” group.
Hodges welcomed the result, while saying it should never have required a court case. “I'm glad the government agreed to stop targeting my speech, but it shouldn't take a lawsuit to get the government to respect our constitutional rights,” he said in a statement reported by Indiana Public Media. “People have a right to know what their government is doing. I hope that thanks to this lawsuit, others can share what they see and hear without facing this kind of censorship.”
Source: Indiana Public Media (IPM)
Why this matters in Indiana, Chicago and for diaspora readers
Tools like Eyes Up and local sighting groups are one of the main ways immigrant communities — including Punjabi families in Indiana and the Chicago area, and the truckers who pass through both states daily — learn where enforcement is happening and share verified video of it. When a platform disappears after government pressure, that information flow stops even though no court has ruled the speech itself unlawful. Friday's permanent injunction is therefore about more than one app: it sets a court-ordered limit on the government asking private companies to do quietly what the First Amendment would bar it from doing directly, which is how the plaintiffs framed their case.
What happens next
Because the preliminary injunction has been made permanent, the protection is now a standing court order, not a temporary pause or a voluntary promise that an agency could withdraw on its own. Reuters reported that the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. Neither Reuters nor Indiana Public Media reported any announcement of an appeal on Friday, and the sources did not say that Apple or Facebook had been ordered to do anything — the order binds the government, which is the party the plaintiffs sued.
For Hodges, the immediate result is the one Indiana Public Media put in its headline: the federal government backed down in the case involving his ICE-tracking website, and the pledge he won is now written into a permanent injunction issued on Friday, November 13, 2026.
Source: Indiana Public Media (IPM)