In January 2026, David Streever sent an email to acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons, calling him a "monstrous human being" and comparing him to Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, a key architect of the Holocaust. Streever also described Lyons as a "sad, despised man" who would "never know peace."

Five months later, ICE agents appeared at Streever's home in Rochester, New York, to serve him a warning notice alleging his email may have been a "VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW." When Streever was not home, federal agents tracked him to a hotel in New York City, where he was returning from an international vacation with his daughter, in an attempt to contact him.

The warning notice claimed that Streever's email might "constitute a violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code," which prohibits threatening to assault, kidnap, or murder a federal official, or using an official's restricted personal information to incite violence. It instructed him to "remove and/or discontinue the aforementioned behavior."

Streever has filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), accusing the government of violating his First Amendment rights by attempting to silence and intimidate him. His attorney, JT Morris, deputy director of litigation at FIRE, told Reason that Streever's email is part of the "American tradition" of harshly criticizing public officials and is "strongly protected under the First Amendment."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began collecting information in July 2025 on individuals who made credible threats against ICE personnel or facilities, including social media posts and location data. In April 2026, Robert Piepiora, acting assistant field office director at ICE's Boston Field Office, disclosed that the Office of Professional Responsibility had investigated 131 cases involving doxxing and threats directed at ICE employees nationwide from January 2025 to March 2026.

The case raises questions about the balance between protecting federal employees and safeguarding free speech rights.

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