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WASHINGTON (CN) — A New York man sued the Trump administration on Monday for violating his First Amendment right to free expression by sending federal agents to his house in retaliation for an email to ex-ICE head Todd Lyons comparing Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota to Nazi Germany.
David Streever, a New York author who filed the 27-page lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court, argues the Department of Homeland Security is threatening Americans’ right to criticize police action without risking arrest, which distinguishes a “free nation from a police state.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is actively threatening that freedom by tracking down and retaliating against speakers like plaintiff David Streever because he exercised his fundamental right to criticize one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in the United States,” Streever argues. “Our Constitution does not tolerate such a brazen abuse of authority.”
Streever, represented by JT Morris of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, is asking a federal judge to declare the government’s actions unconstitutional and block the government from taking any further action against him regarding the email.
Operation Metro Surge saw federal agents take over the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, cracking down on immigrants as well as protesters who took to the streets to voice their disapproval and in certain instances impede arrests.
Starting on Dec. 4, 2025, tensions quickly escalated throughout the city with the detention of U.S. citizens and the arrests of 3,000 people throughout the cities. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement killings of citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti in January sparked significant bipartisan backlash, bringing an end to the operation on Feb. 12.
On Jan. 26, Streever sent a three-paragraph email to Lyons calling him a “monstrous human being,” comparing him to Reinhard Heydrich, a principal architect of the Holocaust, and warning that he will “never know peace.”
On June 23, while Streever was on vacation in Europe, two ICE agents appeared outside his home in Rochester, New York, and left a document titled “Warning Notice” with his wife, stating he “may or may not have” sent an email threatening Lyons.
The notice states that ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility had reason to believe Streever’s email likely violated 18 U.S. Code Section 115(a), retaliating against a federal official by threatening them, and 18 U.S. Code Section 119, publicizing restricted personal information about a government official to threaten them.
Section 115 carries a penalty between one and 20 years — only if the threats result in an assault — while Section 119 carries a maximum of five years but does not require an assault as a factor.
While Streever’s wife informed the agents, who needed a signature on the notice, that Streever would return to Rochester on June 26, a third agent tracked him down to the New York City hotel he and his daughter were staying at after flying back to the U.S. late June 25.
At 9 p.m., a hotel clerk woke Streever to inform him an agent came by earlier to look for him and gave the business card left by Special Agent Trevor Pitts of the Jamaica, New York, office of Homeland Security Investigations — a DHS branch historically focused on transnational criminal organizations.
According to Streever, his wife never told the agents at their home where Streever planned to stay prior to returning home. Multiple unidentified agents also called and left voicemails asking after the email.
“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 for ICE agents for his email or future criticism of ICE and DHS policies and actions,” Streever says.
According to Streever, his email was just one example of citizens being visited by federal and local law enforcement in response to messages to Homeland Security voicing their displeasure with its conduct.
In one example, an individual emailed ICE attorney Joseph Dernbach about his defense of an effort to deport a man to Afghanistan where he’d likely be targeted by the Taliban, telling him “don’t play Russian Roulette with [the man]’s life.”
The individual then received a notice from Google that it received an “Immigration Enforcement Subpoena” from DHS regarding his email account. Two weeks later, a pair of DHS agents and a police officer then showed up at his home and interrogated him about the email, before later withdrawing the subpoena.
In an emailed statement, a DHS spokesperson defended the agents’ conduct.
“ICE investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE director,” they said, while declining to comment on an ongoing investigation.
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