The Army’s AI Guy and the App That Warns Against ICE? What Laura Loomer Just Uncovered
A Maryland Scientist, Federal Paycheck, and Apps That Track ICE
The American people expect their senior military scientists to dedicate themselves to defending the nation, not to moonlighting with apps that help illegal immigrants evade federal law enforcement.
Yet that is exactly what investigative journalist Laura Loomer has uncovered.
Nicholas Waytowich, the Lead Scientist for Human-Guided Machine Learning at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Maryland, is not only the founder of the “Red Dot” app—a mobile ICE-tracking platform marketed as a “safety tool” for immigrant communities—he is also listed on GitHub as a code contributor to another ICE evasion app, “ICE Block.”
This is not a one-off. It is a pattern of behavior.
And it raises a bigger question: how can a man entrusted with national defense technology—funded by U.S. taxpayers—simultaneously create software that directly undermines federal immigration enforcement and endangers the lives of ICE agents?
Red Dot: An App for Dodging ICE
Launched by Waytowich’s company Binary Brains, LLC (registered in Florida under his name and address), Red Dot has been downloaded more than 60,000 times since its debut in August 2025.
Its marketing promises anonymity and privacy, but its features read like a counter-surveillance toolkit designed to frustrate ICE:
- Instant alerts when ICE activity is reported in your area.
- 100% anonymous reporting with no accounts or data logs.
- Auto-deleting reports after five hours to erase trails.
- Nationwide coverage or local focus options.
- Multilingual alerts in English and Spanish.
Officially, the app bills itself as a “community-driven safety tool.” But the reality is obvious: it exists to tip off illegal immigrants about ICE operations so they can disappear before enforcement arrives.
In plain English: it is a Waze app for ICE raids.
The ICE Block Connection
The revelations don’t end there.
According to his own GitHub profile, Nicholas Waytowich has contributed code not only to Red Dot, but also to a second ICE-tracking app called ICE Block—founded by Joshua Aaron Feinstein.
ICE Block carries its own baggage. Feinstein’s wife, Carolyn Feinstein, was employed at the Department of Justice until Loomer exposed her connection to the app’s registered agent address. Within weeks, she was reportedly terminated from DOJ.
So let’s recap:
- A DOJ staffer lost her job for indirect ties to ICE Block.
- The founder of Red Dot is also tied to ICE Block by way of GitHub contributions.
- Yet Waytowich continues to hold his taxpayer-funded post at the Army Research Lab—while also teaching computer science at UMBC and Anne Arundel Community College.
If Carolyn Feinstein’s indirect tie was enough to cost her a DOJ position, how can the Army justify employing the direct creator of one ICE-tracking app and a contributor to another?
Why the GitHub Evidence Matters
Some will dismiss the GitHub activity as trivial—“just a few lines of code.” But GitHub commits are time-stamped, public records of authorship. They are used routinely in federal investigations, patent disputes, and corporate audits to prove who wrote what, and when.
In this case, the GitHub logs tie Waytowich directly to two projects with the same goal: broadcasting ICE operations in real time. This isn’t speculation. It is visible, verifiable digital evidence.
When combined with his role at ARL, the evidence shows not just a conflict of interest but a pattern of intent. This is not an accidental overlap. It is deliberate.
And that is why GitHub logs matter: they show a clear history of involvement that ARL and federal oversight bodies cannot ignore.
Why This Matters: The Dallas Connection
On September 24, 2025, a man named Joshua Jahn opened fire near an ICE facility in Dallas. He killed a detainee and wounded two ICE agents before taking his own life.
The FBI later confirmed Jahn had researched ICE-tracking apps before the attack.
No evidence has yet directly tied Jahn’s assault to Red Dot or ICE Block. But the trend is unmistakable: violence against ICE officers is on the rise—by some estimates up 500% in the last five years.
What apps like Red Dot do is make that violence easier. They provide extremists, gang members, or cartels with real-time officer movement data. The difference between a safe arrest and a deadly ambush can be measured in seconds—and apps like these supply those seconds.
Defenders claim these apps are no different from Waze, which alerts drivers to police speed traps. But that analogy collapses under scrutiny. Speed traps involve a fine; ICE raids involve criminals, gangs, traffickers, and fugitives. Broadcasting law enforcement locations in those circumstances isn’t “community safety.” It’s obstruction.
The Maryland Factor
This scandal is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening in Maryland, a state that has:
- The Army Research Lab (Adelphi), where Waytowich serves as Lead Scientist.
- UMBC and AACC, where he teaches students in computer science and machine learning.
- A political climate openly hostile to ICE, with “sanctuary” policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Maryland has long clashed with federal immigration authorities. In 2023, the state passed the TRUST Act, limiting local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with ICE detainers. In Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, local police routinely refuse to honor ICE requests.
So when a senior scientist at ARL builds two apps to frustrate ICE operations, it doesn’t just happen in isolation. It happens in a state where the political establishment has normalized resistance to federal immigration enforcement.
That context makes this controversy even more explosive.
Conflict of Interest: The Army’s Problem
Waytowich’s dual role—taxpayer-funded Army scientist by day, app developer for ICE evasion by night—collides head-on with federal ethics law (5 C.F.R. § 2635), which bars outside employment that conflicts with official duties or undermines federal missions.
Questions ARL must answer immediately:
- Did Waytowich disclose Binary Brains, LLC as an outside business interest?
- Did he disclose his GitHub work on Red Dot and ICE Block?
- Were any Army resources—time, equipment, or intellectual property—used in the development of these apps?
- Does his involvement compromise his security clearance, given the apps’ potential to frustrate federal law enforcement and endanger officers?
The minimum consequence should be suspension pending investigation. Anything less sends the message that Army scientists can aid anti-enforcement activism with impunity.
Ethical Fallout for Maryland Universities
Waytowich also teaches at UMBC and Anne Arundel Community College. Both institutions claim to champion diversity, integrity, and public trust.
But can a professor entrusted with training young engineers also moonlight as a developer for apps that enable dodging U.S. law enforcement?
Both schools must review whether Waytowich filed the required conflict-of-interest disclosures. If not, he should be suspended from teaching. If so, why did the universities approve them?
Public universities cannot demand integrity from their students while turning a blind eye to faculty who build apps to obstruct the law.
The Political Climate: Sanctuary Maryland Meets Federal Silence
Maryland’s political establishment—led by Governor Wes Moore and Attorney General Anthony Brown—has leaned hard into sanctuary policies and resistance to federal immigration enforcement.
That context makes the silence surrounding this scandal even more glaring. As of this writing, neither Moore, Brown, UMBC, AACC, nor ARL has issued a statement.
But silence is complicity. Maryland must decide whether it stands with federal officers risking their lives or with activists coding apps to help evade them.
What Maryland Must Do Now
1. Governor Wes Moore: Demand an Immediate Review
Governor Moore must prove that Maryland is not a safe haven for anti-enforcement tech. He should suspend all state partnerships with Binary Brains, LLC and demand an immediate briefing from ARL leadership about Waytowich’s outside activities.
If Moore refuses, it will confirm what critics already believe: that Maryland’s Democratic leadership prioritizes political correctness over officer safety.
2. Attorney General Anthony Brown: Launch a State Probe
AG Brown should investigate whether Red Dot and ICE Block constitute deceptive trade practices under state law. Marketing them as “community safety” tools while in reality facilitating evasion of law enforcement is deceptive by definition.
Brown should also examine whether these apps meet the threshold for endangerment or harassment of officers under Maryland law. If so, civil or even criminal charges may be appropriate.
3. UMBC & AACC: Enforce Faculty Ethics Rules
Both universities must review whether Waytowich filed conflict disclosures. If Carolyn Feinstein was terminated from DOJ for indirect ties to ICE Block, then UMBC and AACC must treat Waytowich’s direct ties with the same seriousness.
Anything less sends the message that academia is exempt from accountability.
4. Maryland DoIT: Block the Apps on State Devices
Maryland’s Department of Information Technology should blacklist Red Dot and ICE Block from all state-owned devices and Wi-Fi networks. No state official should have apps that broadcast the locations of federal officers installed on their devices.
5. The General Assembly: Pass Officer-Safety Laws in 2026
Maryland’s legislature must step up with new protections:
- Ban real-time doxxing of law enforcement officers.
- Classify apps that intentionally obstruct ICE as digital obstruction crimes.
- Mandate public disclosure of outside ventures by all state university faculty.
- Allow ICE agents and law enforcement to sue app developers for damages if harmed by targeted alerts.
These reforms would send a clear message: Maryland values the safety of officers over the activism of app developers.
Why Firing Is the Minimum
If Carolyn Feinstein lost her DOJ job for an indirect tie to ICE Block, then Nicholas Waytowich’s direct authorship of Red Dot and contributions to ICE Block must be grounds for termination at the U.S. Army Research Lab.
This is not partisan. This is about:
- Loyalty to the United States.
- Conflict of interest under federal ethics law.
- Officer safety in an era of rising violence against ICE.
The Army cannot afford a senior scientist who helps engineer apps to frustrate another federal agency’s mission.
Conclusion: Maryland Can’t Hide Behind Federal Silence
So far, ARL, UMBC, AACC, and Maryland’s leadership have stayed silent. But every day of silence sends the wrong message: that a taxpayer-funded Army scientist can undermine immigration enforcement from a Maryland lab, teach students by day, and still draw a government paycheck.
Waytowich’s X account may have vanished, but his GitHub contributions remain. His company is still active. His app is still live on Apple and Google stores.
The facts are not in dispute anymore. The only question is whether Maryland and the federal government have the backbone to act.
👉 Bottom Line
- Nicholas Waytowich is tied not to one, but two ICE-tracking apps.
- One DOJ staffer was fired for indirect ties to ICE Block.
- Waytowich remains employed at ARL and teaching Maryland students.
- Maryland must demand his firing, audit his conflicts, protect state systems, and legislate officer safety laws.
If Maryland’s leaders refuse to act, then the public will know where they stand: with the activist class shielding illegal immigrants, or with the lawmen and taxpayers who defend this nation.
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