Warning Notice

In an autocracy, people measure their words. Americans now must begin to measure theirs.

On Monday, U.S. citizen David Streever sued the Department of Homeland Security. He says its agents violated his First Amendment rights by punishing him for criticizing ICE. Streever’s offense was a three-paragraph email sent in January in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents during immigration raids in Minneapolis. The email was sent under the subject line “What’s Next” to Todd Lyons, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling him a “monstrous human being,” comparing him to a Nazi, and saying he would never know peace. The email contained no threat of violence and no identifying information.

Five months later, on June 23, two agents from Homeland Security Investigations came to Streever’s home while he was in Finland with his seven-year-old daughter. The agents handed his wife a document titled “Warning Notice” that cited the federal law against threatening officials, and asked Streever to discontinue his behavior. It warned that his conduct would be taken into consideration should he continue.

When Streever landed at Kennedy Airport on his return, an agent showed up at his hotel.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed his lawsuit in federal court in Washington, noting that the government waited five months to treat the email as a threat.

Homeland Security says assaults on its officers have risen by as much as five hundred percent.

Meanwhile The New York Times reported that Homeland Security has issued hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Meta, and Reddit, seeking the names behind accounts that criticize ICE or post the locations of its agents. The companies complied with some of them.

In an autocracy, people measure their words. Americans now must begin to measure theirs.