Man wins fight to block ICE threat over off-the-cuff angry email.
Man wins fight to block ICE threat over off-the-cuff angry email.
It's not illegal to send an email telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials that their actions will haunt them, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, granting a preliminary injunction that blocks ICE from threatening to prosecute a critic for protected speech.
Back in January, David Streever sent a scathing three-paragraph email to then-acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons. Outraged by the killings of two Minnesota protestors against ICE, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Streever told Lyons that he was a "monstrous human being" who will eat himself "alive with shame" for defending officers who shot people who posed no threat and had no weapons. Comparing Lyons to an infamous high-ranking Nazi cop, Streever predicted that "even Trump" would one day turn on Lyons for defending the "obvious" slayings of Americans.
"You are a monstrous human being and will go down in history as America's Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher," Streever wrote. "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."
ICE did nothing when the email was received, but five months later, the agency served a warning notice at Streever's home that claimed his note may have constituted a criminal threat of violence.
Those warnings are normally issued to people threatening to assault, kidnap, or murder officials, not morally condemn their actions. But ICE held Streever's email to the same bar, warning that if he did not "discontinue" speaking critically of ICE leadership, he risked state and federal prosecution.
Because Streever wasn't there at the time of their visit, agents took the extra step of tracking him down at a hotel. That "greatly alarmed" him, his lawyers at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said in a press release. And he's been self-censoring ever since, fearful of government retaliation.
At least for now, ICE apparently has conceded that Streever's email was protected speech, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote in his opinion.
Notably, ICE confirmed that the agency supposedly dropped the investigation within a month of sending the warning, but it never told Streever that his case was closed. Rather, an official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) account made a "somewhat contradictory statement" in an X post that Streever reasonably understood as confirming that the probe was still underway, Contreras said.
Moving forward, ICE still has to prove that the case was actually closed. Either way, though, the agency's warning - which Contreras said "practically shouts" that Streever could be prosecuted for future political speech - remained in effect. That allowed the government to continue censoring Streever in likely violation of his First Amendment rights, Contreras wrote.
To avoid irreparable harm to Streever, Contreras ordered ICE to temporarily stop enforcing the warning notice, making good on the threats, or issuing similar threats while the case proceeds. Otherwise, Contreras found that Streever "faces a distinct possibility of prosecution for future speech," especially since a DHS spokesperson has warned that "ANYONE who assaults or threatens our law enforcement officers will face the consequences."
"I'm deeply relieved that the court affirmed what I knew all along: that I am permitted to speak my conscience in the United States of America, including when I criticize government officials," Streever said. "While I wish this ordeal hadn't happened, hopefully this incident will serve as a reminder that the First Amendment protects us all."
Ars could not immediately reach ICE for comment or to confirm if it plans to appeal the injunction.
During litigation, ICE wouldn't explain who made the determination that Streever was potentially illegally threatening violence. Instead, ICE noted that the email came amid a reported "946 percent increase in threats against ICE officials" between 2024 and 2025. Ultimately, it was decided that "the email had potential threatening undertones to ICE personnel, potentially presenting a safety concern," ICE claimed.
As the case moves forward, ICE will likely continue to argue that it needs to police critical emails like Streever's "to protect the ability of law enforcement to investigate and deter criminal threats or crimes that follow less-than-criminal threats."
Reporting synthesized and verified under Nexvoro.tech editorial guidelines. Full primary records referenced via Ars Technica.
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