Back in January, David Streever sent a three-paragraph email to then-acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons.
At least for now, ICE has said that Streever’s email was protected speech, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote in his opinion.
An official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) account made a “somewhat contradictory statement” in a X post that Streever reasonably understood as confirming that the probe was still underway, Contreras said.
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At least for now, ICE has said that Streever’s email was protected speech, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote in his opinion.
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It’s not illegal to send an email Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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 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 a high-ranking Nazi cop, Streever predicted that “even Trump” would one day turn on Lyons for defending the “obvious” slayings of Americans.
At least for now, ICE has said that Streever’s email was protected speech, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote in his opinion.
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. An official Department of Homeland Security (DHS) account made a “somewhat contradictory statement” in a X post that Streever reasonably understood as confirming that the probe was still underway, Contreras said.
Instead, ICE noted that the email came amid a reported “946 percent increase in threats against ICE officials” between 2024 and 2025.
“I cherish our right to speak openly about issues of public concern,” Streever said in July as his free speech fight intensified and he felt forced to explain to his daughter that ICE might try to forcibly detain him.
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