FIRE sues over DHS warning to Rochester man’s anti-ICE email

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued the Department of Homeland Security in federal court in Washington, D.C., after Homeland Security Investigations agents tracked Rochester resident David Streever to his home and a New York City hotel over an email criticizing ICE. The complaint alleges the government turned political criticism into a possible criminal case and used federal power to chill protected speech.

Streever sent the email on January 26, 2026, to Todd Lyons, then the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lyons was set to leave ICE at the end of May. Streever wrote after federal immigration officers in Minneapolis fatally shot two U.S. citizen observers during an enforcement surge there. His message carried the subject line “What’s next,” and it compared Lyons to a Nazi while saying Lyons would be tormented by his conscience.

Five months later, on June 23, 2026, two Homeland Security Investigations agents went to Streever’s Rochester home while he was in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter. They left a “WARNING NOTICE” that said “YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW” and identified an email ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility had flagged as possibly violating federal law. After Streever returned to the United States, the agents also tried to contact him at a New York City hotel, but hotel staff turned them away.

FIRE’s complaint says the email was protected political speech and petitioning activity, not a true threat, and argues that DHS officials violated Streever’s First Amendment rights by treating criticism of immigration enforcement as a criminal problem. Adam Steinbaugh, a FIRE attorney, represents Streever in the case.

ICE declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation, and investigates all credible threats to its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE director. In a separate February 2026 case, DHS issued an administrative subpoena to Google seeking identifying information about another critic after he emailed a DHS attorney in support of an Afghan asylum seeker, and DHS agents later showed up at his home. Another upstate New York resident, Paigelynne Gonyea, was confronted by federal officers in June over an online post criticizing ICE.