Rochester man files suit over ‘warning notice’ from ICE

A Rochester man has filed a lawsuit accusing federal officials of violating his First Amendment rights.

On Jan. 26, plaintiff David Streever sent a three-paragraph email to Todd M. Lyons, then the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“You are a monstrous human being and will go down in history as America’s Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher,” Streever wrote. Heydrich was a high-ranking official in the Nazi Army during World War II.

“You will never know peace. You will seek to lose yourself, to escape the burden of knowing the truth about yourself. But wherever you go you will find yourself. You will torment yourself until your last day on earth,” Streever wrote.

Five months later, ICE agents David Brodie and Abbi Henry visited Streever’s house in Rochester, but he was on a trip to northern Europe with his 7-year old daughter. The agents gave his wife a “warning notice” which states he may have violated federal law.

The notice stated that Streever was to discontinue his behavior, and instructed him to sign the notice and return it to ICE.

When Streever and his daughter returned to the United States, a third government agent tracked them to a New York City hotel, where a hotel employee woke Streever to tell him a federal agent was looking for him. The agent gave the clerk his business card to give to Streever, according to the complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Streever received voicemails from two callers who said they were conducting a Homeland Security investigation, but they did not provide their names.

Brodie and Henry also delivered a warning notice to a Syracuse resident on June 23 while she was volunteering at a polling place during New York’s primary elections, according to the complaint. The notice was regarding a speech she made about ICE operations in Minnesota.

“ICE’s issuance of formal warning notice documents to critics who engage in protected speech — and its decision to have federal agents deliver those warnings in person — can have only one purpose: to systemically chill ICE’s critics and coerce them into silence,” the suit claims.

“This Court should enjoin defendants’ unconstitutional actions to protect Streever’s First Amendment rights and forestall the intended chilling effect those abuses will have on others,” the complaint states.

Streever is represented by attorneys from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

The warning notice states that the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) identified an email that Streever sent to Lyons, “which may constitute a violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code.”

“Accordingly, OPR is requesting that you promptly remove and/or discontinue the aforementioned behavior,” the notice states.

“This notice officially informs you that it is unlawful to threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder a federal official … with the intent to impede, intimidate, and/or interfere with the federal official’s duties or retaliate against a federal official due to the performance of their duties,” the notice states.

The notice calls for Streever to sign the notice as an acknowledgment of receipt. But the space for the special agent to identify themselves and provide their contact information was left blank.

“The agents’ visit to his home, repeated telephone messages, visit to his hotel, apparent surveillance of his travel, and claims that his email was a threat of violence have 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,” according to the complaint.

Streever is seeking declaratory judgments that his speech is protected by the First Amendment and asks the Court to “permanently enjoin defendants, their officers, agents, servants, and employees, and any persons or entities acting in concert with defendants, from taking any further actions, formal or informal, to coerce, threaten, retaliate against, or intimate repercussions directly or indirectly to … Streever for his protected speech and petitioning activity.”

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