New Yorker Sues ICE After Officers Visit Home Over His Criticism of Agency

A New York man has filed a lawsuit after federal officers visited his home to deliver a warning tied to an email he sent criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership and the agency’s tactics during immigration raids.

David Streever, a U.S. citizen who lives in Rochester, brought the case Monday in Washington, D.C., against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. In the complaint, reviewed by INC News, Streever argues that officials violated his First Amendment right to criticize the government.

Streever was traveling in Finland last month with his 7-year-old daughter when two officers arrived at his Rochester home. According to the lawsuit, they gave his wife a warning notice stating that an email he had sent months earlier had been deemed a threat.

The email was sent in January to Todd Lyons, who was serving as acting ICE director at the time. Streever wrote to Lyons after an ICE agent shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good during an immigration raid in Minneapolis.

In the message, Streever called Lyons “a monstrous human being” who “will never know peace” and said he would “go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher,” invoking the name of a Nazi leader.

“The way you are protecting the obvious execution in Minnesota, even as we see the videos, will lead to your downfall. Even Trump will turn on you before the end, and you will be a sad, despised man who eats himself alive with shame at your own pathetic weakness,” Streever wrote in the email, according to the complaint.

“You will seek to lose yourself, to escape the burden of knowing the truth about yourself. But wherever you go, you will find yourself. You will torment yourself until your last day on Earth,” the email added.

When officers arrived at his home, Streever’s wife answered the door and was handed a “warning notice” explaining that her husband “may be in violation of federal law” for sending his email to ICE’s former acting director.

The notice, reviewed by INC News, urges Streever to “promptly remove and/or discontinue” his “behavior,” warning that the notice will be “taken into consideration” if he continues to be involved” in “criminal activities.”

Streever’s wife told the officers he was out of the country but would return to Rochester later that week, according to the lawsuit. But federal officers did not wait and instead attempted to confront him at a New York City hotel after he returned from Finland, although they were turned away by hotel staff.

That same night, officers repeatedly called Streever’s phone, leaving voicemails identifying themselves only as Homeland Security Investigations.

On their train ride home, Streever told his daughter about the possibility that federal officers might confront him, and the young girl broke down in tears, fearing for her father’s safety.

Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression who is representing Streever, argued the email was protected speech under the First Amendment and does not represent a legitimate threat.

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“If someone is really threatening a government official, you don’t wait five months to act on it,” Steinbaugh said in a statement. “The fact that authorities didn’t respond immediately shows that David presented no threat. This pursuit is designed to intimidate lawful speech, pure and simple.”

Streever said he was shocked that federal officers came to his home to question him over his email.

“I cherish our right to speak openly about issues of public concern,” Streever said. “I hope others will not be discouraged from peacefully expressing their views, even when those views are critical of the government.”

“Like many Americans, I was deeply upset after the shootings in Minnesota and I felt compelled to do something,” Streever said in an earlier statement. “Writing an email to the head of ICE seemed like the least I could do to express my sense of outrage. I never dreamed it would lead to a knock on my door by federal officers or descending on my hotel in the dark of night.”

INC News reached out to DHS and ICE for comment.

The lawsuit also names Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose office released a statement claiming, “Any allegation DHS and its components are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically FALSE,” according to the Associated Press.

The complaint asks the court to order DHS and ICE officials to stop its “coercion and retaliation” against Streever for his protected speech.

The warning to Streever was presented the same week poll worker Paigelynne Gonyea, of Syracuse, said two federal officers confronted her at a voting site during New York’s primaries to question her about a social media post she made about Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who killed Good.

Gonyea said she believes the warning to her was because of a post she made in January in which she shared a picture of Ross along with the caption: “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted.”

Her post was made after Ross had already been identified by the media.

A spokesperson for DHS, Lauren Bis, shared an image of a different social media post from Gonyea in which she said the woman shared Ross’ address, according to the Associated Press, although part of the post was redacted.

Bis said in a statement last week that Gonyea “committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online” and “if you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice.”