An upstate New York resident sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sending federal officers to his house with a warning over an email he sent to the agency’s one-time head.
David Streever, who is a U.S. citizen, was on a trip to Finland when two officers showed up to his Rochester home in June and presented his wife with a warning notice informing him that the email he sent months earlier was considered a threat, his attorneys said. Streever sent the 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.
In the email, Streever called Lyons “a monstrous human being” who “will never know peace.” He said the agency violated his First Amendment rights in a lawsuit filed Monday in Washington D.C.
Streever is one of at least two residents of upstate New York who was served with a federal warning in June in the wake of criticizing ICE online. The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is representing Streever, and said it filed the lawsuit because Streever’s right to free expression was violated.
“This is very clearly within the protection of the First Amendment,” said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the foundation. “It was in the context of political speech.
Representatives for ICE previously declined to comment on the warning to Streever, citing an ongoing investigation, and the agency did not immediately comment Monday. The suit also names Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose office also did not immediately comment.
“ICE investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE Director,” the agency said in a statement last week.
The entirety of the three-paragraph email, which carried the subject line “What’s next,” and referenced a leader in Nazi Germany: “You are a monstrous human being and will go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher.
“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.
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