FIRE files lawsuit after federal agents confront New Yorker over ICE criticism

ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 6, 2026 — The freedom to criticize law enforcement without fear of punishment is an essential right in the United States. In fact, it’s one of the things that separates our free nation from a police state. But officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement don’t seem to understand this.

Five months after a Rochester man, David Streever, wrote a critical email to the then-head of ICE during the agency’s January crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers recently went to extraordinary lengths to confront and intimidate him — even going so far as to stake out his New York City hotel as he returned from an overseas vacation with his daughter. 

That’s an outrageous violation of an American’s First Amendment rights. So today, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a federal lawsuit to challenge ICE’s efforts to scare Streever and others into silence and remind other government officials that such behavior is un-American, unconstitutional, and unacceptable in a free society.

COURTESY PHOTOS OF DAVID FOR MEDIA USE

“Like many Americans, I was deeply upset after the shootings in Minnesota and I felt compelled to do something,” Streever said. “Writing an email to the head of ICE seemed like the least I could do to express my sense of outrage. I never dreamed it would lead to a knock on my door by federal officers or descending on my hotel in the dark of night.”

In January, federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis ICU nurse, during a tense encounter. Outraged, Streever wrote a stern email to then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, entitled “What’s next” and calling the official a “monstrous human being” who will “go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher,” a reference to the infamous Nazi official.

The First Amendment unquestionably protects Streever’s criticism. Writing an angry note to political leaders is an American tradition as old as the republic itself. That’s why time and again, the Supreme Court has upheld that cherished freedom, warning against attempts to label heated political rhetoric as dangerous or unprotected.

In late June, Streever was in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter when his home’s front-door camera picked up the presence of two federal officers on his porch. The Nest video shows the agents, arriving late in the afternoon on a sunny Tuesday, walking past children’s toys as they climb the steps and repeatedly ring the doorbell. But nobody was home yet. Soon, though, Streever’s wife, an Episcopal priest, still wearing her clergy collar, arrived to find the agents still present.

One of them handed her a “WARNING NOTICE” that explained, in underlined capital letters printed on official federal stationery from ICE and DHS, with respect to Streever that “YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW” for sending his email to the ICE director. The notice insists that he should “promptly … discontinue” his “behavior,” and warns that the notice will be “taken into consideration” if he “continue[s] to be involved” in “criminal activities.”

Streever’s wife told the agents he was out of the country and would return to Rochester that Friday — but federal agents did not wait. While Streever and his daughter slept off some jet lag at a New York City hotel before the last leg of the trip back to Rochester, a federal agent showed up at the front desk looking for him. He left a clerk a business card to give to Streever, whom the clerk called to inform that an agent had been by. Also that night, two agents repeatedly called Streever’s phone, leaving anonymous voicemails identifying themselves only as “Homeland Security Investigations.”

If agents showing up at his home wasn’t unsettling enough, the hotel visit greatly alarmed Streever. His wife hadn’t told authorities where he was staying. Homeland Security found him anyway. 

On their train ride home, Streever informed his daughter about the possibility that federal agents might confront him. The girl broke down in tears, worried about her father’s safety. Streever then resolved to fight this abuse of power.

Make no mistake: Streever’s email contained only fully protected speech, and nothing that could constitutionally justify ICE’s “knock it off” threats. And it came nowhere close to an unlawful threat of violence, as the notice and subsequent ICE posts suggested. Telling the director of ICE that he would carry a guilty conscience around with him for the rest of his life, at the pinnacle of public debate over ICE actions, is no crime. It’s core protected exercise of the rights to free speech and to petition government officials.

“If someone is really threatening a government official, you don’t wait five months to act on it,” said FIRE Senior Attorney Adam Steinbaugh. “The fact that authorities didn’t respond immediately shows that David presented no threat. This pursuit is designed to intimidate lawful speech, pure and simple.”

Simply put, the only threat here is the one DHS and ICE officials pose to Streever’s First Amendment freedoms — and those of his fellow Americans. That’s why FIRE is going to court to halt it.

FIRE’s lawsuit against Homeland Security and ICE officials is filed in the District of Columbia, and includes DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin as a defendant. It asks the court to order DHS and ICE officials to stop its speech-chilling coercion and retaliation against Streever for his protected speech.

“I cherish our right to speak openly about issues of public concern,” Streever said. “I hope others will not be discouraged from peacefully expressing their views, even when those views are critical of the government.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

CONTACT:

Karl de Vries, Director of Media Relations, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@fire.org