Apple has removed a popular but controversial app that tracked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, following pressure from the Trump administration.

Federal officials said the app, ICEBlock, was used by the gunman in last week's shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas. While authorities have not confirmed whether the app played a role in planning the attack, they issued a strong warning.

"It's a casting call to invite bad actors to attack law enforcement officers," said Marcos Charles, acting head of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, during a news conference last week. "It's no different than giving a hitman the location of their intended target, and this is exactly what we saw happened in Dallas."

Attorney general confirms Apple's decision

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so."

Apple confirmed the removal in its own statement.

"We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps," the company said. "Based on information we've received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store."

Developer defends app's purpose

Joshua Aaron, the Texas developer behind ICEBlock, said he was "extremely disappointed" by Apple's decision.

ICEBlock used crowdsourced data to alert users when ICE agents were nearby. Aaron said the app was designed to help users avoid confrontation, not incite it. He said Apple initially approved the app, telling him it was legal and protected under free speech.

"In fact, it does exactly the same thing that their own maps app does," Aaron told the CBS News Texas I-Team. "Their maps app allows you to see where a law enforcement officer – who is speed trapping. They call it a speed check report. There is nothing different about spotting an officer in public doing a speed trap than spotting an ICE agent in public."

Developer disputes link to shooting

Aaron said Apple has not explained to him why it reversed course.

"But what I do know there is no evidence that ICEBlock played any role in the Dallas shooting," he said. "And so this is nothing more than them using fear mongering to take down an app that they didn't want because it was exposing what they were doing to the people of this nation."

At the time of its removal, ICEBlock had more than 1.4 million active users. Aaron said he plans to fight Apple's decision.