(NewsNation) — The developer of ICEBlock, an iPhone app that alerted users to sightings of U.S. immigration agents, is suing the Trump administration for free speech violations, alleging that Attorney General Pam Bondi abused her “state power” to influence Apple to remove the app.

In October, Apple removed ICEBlock and similar apps from the App Store at Bondi’s request. She claimed the app put ICE agents at risk by enabling people to track their activity. “We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlockapp from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi told Fox News in a statement.

In response to the app’s removal at the government’s request, ICEBlock’s creator, Joshua Aaron, filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the government “used its regulatory power to coerce a private platform to suppress First Amendment-protected expression.”

“We’re basically asking the court to set a precedent and affirm that ICEBlock is, in fact, First Amendment-protected speech and that I did nothing wrong by creating it,” Aaron said in an interview Monday.

The lawsuit also asks a federal judge to protect the Texas-based software developer from prosecution, alleging “unlawful threats made by Attorney General Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan to criminally investigate and prosecute Aaron for his role in developing ICEBlock.”

Apple, who isn’t a party in the suit, defended the app’s removal in a statement to NewsNation in October: “We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps. 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.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.