Apple told Univision this week that the FBI's demand for weaker security on iPhones could give the government more power to track immigration.

Apple and the FBI have been sparring over the encryption of the Cupertino giant's iPhones, with the FBI demanding that Apple hand over what amounts to a "back door" to its iPhone data security measures. This week, Apple's top Latino executive told Univision that the federal government's demand for weaker iPhone security could lead to more surveillance powers in immigration matters.

Apple's senior VP of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, told Univision on Wednesday that Latinos should be worried about the FBI's demands for the company to help it hack into the encrypted iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino shooters.

In no uncertain terms, Cue told the Spanish-language network in an interview that the logical extension of that kind of government power could affect Latinos with immigration issues.

Cue: Latinos Should Worry About FBI Hacking iPhones

The problem outlined by Cue boils down to the question of government authority, and the various possible applications of that power if the government were to successfully argue that it has a right to bypass iPhone encryption -- and thus bypass a corporation's security system and users' data privacy.

"Because where does this stop?" Cue rhetorically asked Univision, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. "In a divorce case? In an immigration case? In a tax case with the IRS?"

"Someday, someone will be able to turn on a phone's microphone," he added. "This should not happen in this country."

Cue warned that, while the FBI says the encryption fight is limited to only the San Bernardino case, there's no telling how far the federal surveillance apparatus might go if it could force Apple, through court orders, to open up encrypted user iPhones.

"When they can get us to create a new system to do new things, where will it stop?" said Cue in Spanish on Univision.

Apple's play for Latino support, by bringing up fears of more government power to enforce currently messy immigration laws, was seen by experts as a deliberate, and smart, attempt to get politically active Latinos' support.

Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist in the field of Latino politics, told the L.A. Times that Cue's outreach on the immigration issue was a "marvelous stroke" by Apple. "Once there's a sentiment that the federal government could crack into phones to see who's in the country legally or illegally, that's a line in the sand."

Encryption Debate Gets Ugly

Meanwhile, the back and forth between Apple and the FBI in court has only gotten more contentious. As The Verge reported, on late Thursday federal prosecutors on the FBI's side of the case filed a motion questioning Apple's motives in the case.

"Apple's rhetoric is not only false, but also corrosive of the very institutions that are best able to safeguard our liberty and our rights," read the government's court filing. "Far from being a master key, the software simply disarms the booby trap affixed to the door."

Apple took quite a lot of offence to the prosecutors' statement -- essentially saying that the company was lying and had ignoble motives in its fight against the FBI -- and responded to the filing with a statement that was stronger and more pointed than anything the company has said about the case to date.

"Everyone should beware, because it seems like disagreeing with the Department of Justice means you must be evil and anti-American," said Bruce Sewell, Apple general counsel and senior VP of legal, on the record. He called the prosecutor's brief a "cheap shot" that was trying to "vilify Apple," rather than debating the issues at hand.

"I can only conclude that the DOJ is so desperate at this point that it has thrown all decorum to the winds," said Sewell.