What happened
A man in Rochester, New York, Monday sued the Department of Homeland Security and ICE after two agents tracked him down last month to deliver a “warning notice” over an email he sent in January. In it, David Streever called acting ICE Director Todd Lyons a “monstrous human being” who “will never know peace” due to his “shame” over “protecting the obvious execution” of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., accuses DHS of violating Streever’s First Amendment rights and requests that the court prohibit similar investigations into lawful criticism of government officials.
Who said what
The Homeland Security Investigations agents who tried to confront Streever at home, then at his New York City hotel when he returned from Finland two days later, warned that the email to Lyons may have constituted an illegal threat. The same HSI agents issued a “similar warning the same day to a poll worker in Syracuse,” Paigelynne Gonyea, over a January Instagram post about the ICE agent who killed Good, The New York Times said. After Gonyea went public, The Washington Post said, “she heard from six other people around the country — including Streever — who say they also received similar visits from federal agents in recent months.”
What next?
“Any allegation DHS and its components are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically FALSE,” DHS said in a statement Monday. But “anyone who assaults or threatens our law enforcement officers will face the consequences.”