A Rochester, New York, man filed a federal lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security officials on Monday, alleging that federal agents violated his First Amendment rights by issuing a warning notice after he sent a critical email to the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in the U. S.
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District Court for the District of Columbia, names DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, ICE officials, and three federal agents as defendants.
The legal action stems from a January 26 email sent by David Streever to then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons following an immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis where federal officers fatally shot two U.
S. citizens, including ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
According to the lawsuit, Streever's three-paragraph email compared Lyons to a Nazi official and stated that his conscience would torment him.
Five months later, on June 23, two Homeland Security Investigations agents visited Streever's home while he was on vacation in Finland with his seven-year-old daughter, delivering an official "WARNING NOTICE" to his wife that alleged he may be in violation of federal laws prohibiting threats against federal officials.
The agency subsequently tracked Streever to a hotel near John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City when he returned to the country, where an agent left a business card at the front desk and officials made repeated anonymous phone calls to his phone.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare Streever's email protected speech, halt further coercive actions by the government, and declare that such warning notices unconstitutionally chill free expression.
