Judge Blocks ICE From Threatening Man Over Mean Email [Op-Ed]

Since President Donald Trump began his second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been moving like thin-skinned bullies. Homeland Security’s propaganda tries to make ICE look like tough guys, but reality has shown they’re anything but. I mean, if they were really tough guys, a federal judge wouldn’t have had to rule against the Department of Homeland Security to prevent them from harassing a man over sending a mean email. 

That’s right. They were tripping over an email.

NPR reports that David Streever of Rochester, New York, has continually been harassed since sending an email to former ICE director Todd Lyons, calling him a “monstrous human being” who would be tormented by his own conscience. Streever sent the email after federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. 

Federal agents left a notice that read “YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW” and listed federal laws that make it a crime to threaten federal officials outside of Streever’s home shortly after he sent the email. “Receipt of this Notice will be taken into consideration, should you continue to be involved in any criminal activities described above,” the notice read.

I guess I can’t really be surprised by ICE’s reaction to Streever’s email, as they’ve spent much of Trump’s second term acting like a bunch of whiny little punks. The Trump administration loves to tout itself as the “free speech party” whenever one of their cronies says a slur, but is pro-censorship when it comes to anyone who disagrees with them. 

What’s absurd to me is that Streever didn’t even threaten Lyons; he just called him a bad person. If you don’t want to be labeled a Nazi, don’t do things that would give people that impression. I’ve never been called a Nazi, but I have been called various versions of radical left scum. Considering that I believe in equal rights, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, and start talking like Johnny Silverhand after one sip of whiskey, I get why someone would call me that. 

Streever’s lawsuit accused ICE agents of violating his First Amendment rights when they tried to track him down at his home, an airport, and a hotel to intimidate him over the email. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras agreed with Streever and issued a preliminary injunction preventing DHS from “taking further steps in reliance on the Warning Notice…and from issuing any substantially similar threats to [Streever] aimed at his protected expression during the course of this matter.”

“Mr. Streever’s injury is the loss of his freedom to engage in political speech now because the threat of such an investigation or prosecution looms over him like the sword of Damocles, and he is forced to self-censor under that threat,” Contreras wrote in his ruling.

Streever released a statement celebrating Contreras’s ruling. “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 wrote. 

“While I wish this ordeal hadn’t happened, hopefully this incident will serve as a reminder that the First Amendment protects us all,” he added. 

SEE ALSO:

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