He Criticized ICE in an Email — Then Agents Showed Up at His Door

A Rochester, New York, man is suing the Department of Homeland Security after federal agents showed up at his home and later tracked him to a hotel over a harshly worded email he had sent to the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement five months earlier.

David Streever, a U.S. citizen, sent the email to then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on Jan. 26, two days after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis and roughly three weeks after officers fatally shot Renée Macklin Good in the same city. In the three-paragraph message, with the subject line "What's next," Streever called Lyons a "monstrous human being" and compared him to a senior Nazi-era police official, writing that Lyons would be "tormented" by his conscience over what Streever described as the killings.

Agents Track Him to Two Locations

Five months later, on June 23, two agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, arrived at Streever's Rochester home and left a document with his wife. The paper, labeled "WARNING NOTICE," stated that Streever "may be in violation of federal law" and asked him to "promptly remove and/or discontinue the aforementioned behavior."

Streever was traveling in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter at the time and learned of the visit only after reviewing his home security camera footage. Two days later, after landing at JFK International Airport, a third HSI agent tracked him to the hotel where he and his daughter were staying overnight and left a business card at the front desk asking him to call. Streever's wife had not disclosed which hotel the family would be staying at, raising questions about how agents located him.

The Lawsuit's Claims

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit civil liberties group, filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Streever's behalf. It names three HSI agents, along with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE officials, as defendants. The suit argues that Streever's email was constitutionally protected speech and that the agents' actions amounted to unlawful retaliation intended to discourage criticism of government officials.

"Americans have a clear right to criticize government officials," JT Morris, deputy director of litigation at FIRE, said. He argued that agents showing up at someone's door over political speech constitutes "an act of intimidation that the Constitution doesn't tolerate."

Adam Steinbaugh, a senior attorney at FIRE, questioned the timing of the agency's response given the lengthy gap between the email and the visit. "If someone is really threatening a government official, you don't wait five months to act on it," he said.

A Pattern of Similar Visits

Streever's case follows a similar incident involving Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker in Syracuse, New York, who said two HSI agents visited her at a polling site on June 23 over a January Instagram post naming the ICE officer involved in Good's shooting. Gonyea denied she had doxxed the officer, saying she had shared information already reported publicly by the Minnesota Star Tribune. After her account drew media attention, DHS said in a statement that Gonyea had "committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online," though the department did not provide evidence to support the claim when asked by reporters.

Gonyea said she has since heard from six other people around the country, including Streever, who reported similar visits from federal agents tied to emails, social media posts or other public criticism of ICE.

DHS Response

DHS has denied that its actions were intended to suppress free speech. In a statement, the department said it "investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE Director," and added that it does not comment on ongoing investigations. Responding more broadly to accusations that the agency is targeting government critics, DHS called any suggestion that it is trying to "squash" free speech "categorically FALSE."

Streever said the email was a response to what he described as outrage over the shootings and said he never anticipated it would lead to a visit from federal agents. "I cherish our right to speak openly about issues of public concern," he said in a statement. "I hope others will not be discouraged from peacefully expressing their views, even when those views are critical of the government."

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