Suit claims federal warning violated First Amendment rights
David Streever, a U.S. citizen from Rochester, New York, filed a federal lawsuit Monday against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that the agency violated his First Amendment rights by sending federal officers to his home in response to a critical email he sent to the agency’s former acting director.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., by the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, argues that Streever’s email was protected political speech. The case comes as federal agents have contacted at least two residents of upstate New York this year over their online communications about immigration enforcement.
Streever sent the three-paragraph email in January to Todd Lyons, then the acting director of ICE, after an immigration officer fatally shot Minneapolis resident Renee Good during an anti-ICE demonstration, a confrontation that was caught on video.
In the email, which carried the subject line “What’s next,” Streever called Lyons “a monstrous human being” who “will never know peace.” He referenced a leader in Nazi Germany, writing, “You are a monstrous human being and will go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher.”
Streever continued: “You will never know peace. 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.”
Two ICE officers appeared at Streever’s Rochester home in June while he was on a trip to Finland and presented his wife with a warning notice informing him that the email was considered a threat, according to his attorneys. Federal agents also attempted to confront Streever at a hotel in New York City when he returned from Finland, but hotel staff turned them away, said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
“This is very clearly within the protection of the first amendment,” Steinbaugh said. “It was in the context of political speech.”
The lawsuit also names Markwayne Mullin, the secretary of homeland security, which oversees ICE. Mullin’s office issued a statement denying that the department was attempting to suppress free speech.
“Any allegation DHS and its components are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically FALSE,” the statement said. “Anyone who assaults or threatens our law enforcement officers will face the consequences.”
Streever’s case is one of a series of recent federal interactions with New York residents over their online communications. MSI previously reported that two federal officers confronted a Syracuse poll worker at her polling location during the state’s primary elections in June, telling her that a social media post about ICE was under investigation. The poll worker, Paigelynne Gonyea, said she believed the warning stemmed from writing “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted” in a post with a picture of Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot and killed Good.
A DHS spokesperson, Lauren Bis, said in June that Gonyea “committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online” and warned that “if you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice.”
A representative for the New York attorney general’s office has said the office is aware of both residents’ contact with federal agents and has been reviewing the interaction between Gonyea and federal agents that took place at the polls.
Representatives for ICE previously declined to comment on the warning to Streever, citing an ongoing investigation. The agency did not immediately comment Monday.