Man Sues DHS After Agents Allegedly Tracked Him Down Over Email Criticizing ICE

A man who sent a scathing email comparing Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to a Nazi after two deadly immigration enforcement shootings is now suing the Department of Homeland Security.

According to a report from CNN published on Monday, July 6, David Streever claimed federal agents “went to extraordinary lengths to confront and intimidate him” months later by tracking him down and warning he may have broken the law.

Attorneys with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression are representing Streever and told CNN “the First Amendment unquestionably protects Streever’s criticism.”

The Department of Homeland Security gave the outlet a statement of their own and said that the department “investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE Director.”

Streever’s email was sent in January and came with the subject line of “What’s next,” and in the body he told Lyons, who stepped down from his position as ICE Director in May, “You will never know peace.”

“You will seek to lose yourself, to escape the burden of knowing the truth about yourself,” he continued. “But wherever you go, you will find yourself. You will torment yourself until your last day on Earth.”

The email came just two days after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal officers during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. It also referenced the death of Renee Good, another American citizen who was killed by an ICE officer during the same enforcement operation, according to CNN.

Months later, Streever claimed federal officials showed up at his Rochester, New York, home with a written warning stating he “MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW” for allegedly threatening a federal official.

CNN reported that Streever wasn’t even home at the time. He was traveling in Europe with his daughter, but he claimed the agents later left phone messages and that another federal officer appeared in the lobby of the New York City hotel where he and his daughter were staying after they returned from Europe.

According to the outlet, the repeated attempts to contact him caused “Streever and his family anxiety and distress, including fear of further retaliation from ICE agents for his email or future criticism of ICE and DHS policies and actions.”

Streever’s lawsuit comes amid criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.