Overview
- On Monday, July 6, Rochester resident David Streever filed a federal suit in Washington, D.C., saying ICE and DHS violated his First Amendment rights by confronting him over an email he sent in January.
- Streever says two federal officers visited his Rochester home on June 23 and left a written warning that his January email may have violated federal statutes, then later sought him at a New York City hotel and left voicemails.
- The January 26 email compared then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons to a Nazi official and told Lyons he "will never know peace," language the suit says was political criticism protected by the First Amendment.
- DHS and ICE defend their practice of investigating credible threats to employees and have declined to discuss the specific warning, while the New York attorney general’s office says it is reviewing related contacts with residents.
- Civil-rights lawyers warn the visits and apparent travel monitoring chilled dissent by causing anxiety for Streever and his family and say the case could force courts to set clear rules on when government speech probes cross the line into unlawful intimidation.