David Streever, a Rochester, New York, resident, filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging that Department of Homeland Security personnel violated his First Amendment rights by tracking him down over a harsh email he sent to Todd Lyons, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lawsuit, brought by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, seeks a court declaration that the email was protected speech and an order barring further retaliation, according to the complaint and reporting by NPR and the Associated Press.
David Streever wrote to Lyons on Jan. 26 after federal immigration officers in Minneapolis fatally shot two people, Renée Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, an incident that has drawn scrutiny and public anger.
In the three-paragraph message, Streever used the subject line “What’s next” and wrote that Lyons would “go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher,” a reference to a Nazi official. The email also included language such as “You will never know peace,” but Streever and free-speech advocates argue it did not contain a genuine threat of violence.
About five months later, on June 23, two agents from Homeland Security Investigations visited Streever’s home in Rochester while he was traveling in Finland, according to the lawsuit and NPR’s earlier reporting. His wife, the Rev. Hilary Streever, said the agents told her it involved an email he “may or may not have sent” that was threatening Lyons. The agents left behind a form labeled “WARNING NOTICE” stating he “may be in violation of federal law” and citing federal statutes related to threats against federal officials.
After Streever returned to New York, another HSI agent tracked him to an airport-area hotel near John F. Kennedy International Airport and left a business card at the front desk, according to NPR. His wife said she had not provided his hotel information.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., names multiple federal officials as defendants, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and asks the court to declare the email constitutionally protected and to block further actions that would deter Streever’s speech.
DHS has said ICE investigates “all credible threats” toward its employees and officers and that it does not comment on ongoing investigations. In a separate statement cited by the Associated Press, a spokesperson for Mullin called allegations that DHS was trying to “squash” free speech “categorically FALSE,” while also pointing to concerns about threats and assaults directed at law-enforcement officers.
Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for FIRE, argued that the government’s months-later attempt to deliver a warning notice underscores that Streever’s email was political speech rather than a credible threat.
