David Streever Sues DHS Over 100 Probes Into Online ICE Critics

3 articles · Updated · The Verge · Jul 9

Streever says DHS agents visited his Rochester home, questioned his wife, and tracked him to a New York hotel after he emailed then-acting ICE chief Todd Lyons calling him a Nazi-like "monstrous human being."
The federal lawsuit argues the message was protected speech, not a threat, and says ICE warning notices accusing critics of possible federal-law violations are being used to chill dissent.
More than 100 ICE Office of Professional Responsibility investigations into alleged doxxing and threats have been opened, while DHS has also sent several hundred subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta to identify online critics.
A Syracuse woman received a similar warning over a post about an agent whose identity was already public, echoing earlier cases in Pennsylvania and elsewhere where agents treated harsh criticism as potential threats.
DHS denies trying to suppress speech and says it investigates credible threats amid claimed 8,000% growth in threats, but civil-liberties lawyers and outside analyses dispute the agency's standards and numbers.