He Emailed ICE’s Director to Call Him “Monstrous.” Two Federal Agents Showed Up at His Door — He’s the Second New Yorker This Happened To.
In January 2026, David Streever, a 44-year-old father of two and former journalist in Rochester, New York, sent an angry email to then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons (a career DHS/ICE official, then serving in the Trump administration). It came days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renée Good, a U.S. citizen, during an immigration operation in Minneapolis. Streever called Lyons “a monstrous human being” who “will never know peace,” compared him to a Nazi official, and wrote that “the way you are protecting the obvious execution in Minnesota” would “lead to your downfall.”
Nearly six months later, in late June, two Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents — a DHS/ICE investigative arm, not local police — went to Streever’s Rochester home while he was traveling in Finland with his daughter. His wife answered; the agents handed her an unsigned written warning notice, captured on the family’s doorbell camera, stating the January email had been deemed a threat. When Streever returned and checked into a Manhattan hotel days later, a third HSI agent showed up at the front desk asking for him and left a card. Hotel staff turned the agent away.
No arrest. No criminal charge. This is an administrative warning notice, not a court filing — and Streever is not the only critic of ICE this pair of HSI agents has visited. Days earlier, the same two agents confronted Paigelynne Gonyea, a Syracuse poll worker, at her polling place during New York’s primary election, over an Instagram post about the same Minneapolis shooting. According to Streever and his attorney, this is retaliation for protected speech. According to DHS, it is a response to credible threats and doxxing. Both accounts are below.
- 0 charges — no arrest and no criminal filing against either Streever or Gonyea — both received administrative warnings, not court papers · Source: Fox News/AP; NPR
- 3 HSI visits — agents went to Streever's Rochester home, then to his Manhattan hotel front desk — after first confronting Gonyea at her Syracuse polling place · Source: 13WHAM; NPR
- Jan. 7, 2026 — date ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot U.S. citizen Renée Good in Minneapolis during 'Operation Metro Surge' — the event both Streever's email and Gonyea's post reacted to · Source: NPR
- "Monstrous" — the word Streever used for then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in the January email DHS later called a threat · Source: Fox News/AP; 13WHAM
- July 10, 2026 — deadline Rep. John Mannion (D-NY) gave DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to answer a formal letter on the Gonyea confrontation · Source: Democracy Docket
- Feb. 10, 2026 — date DHS withdrew a Google subpoena for a Philadelphia man's identity after the ACLU moved to quash it — a precedent advocates cite as part of a pattern · Source: ACLU
Streever told reporters he wrote the January email in a moment of raw anger after watching video of the Minneapolis shooting. “Like many Americans, I was deeply upset after the shootings in Minnesota and I felt compelled to do something,” he said. “Writing a letter to the head of ICE seemed like the least I could do to express my sense of outrage.” He says he never expected a reply, let alone a visit from federal agents: “I never dreamed it would lead to a knock on my door by federal officers.”
That knock came in late June, while Streever was out of the country. Two HSI agents arrived at his Rochester home and handed his wife an unsigned written warning notice — the exchange was recorded by the family’s doorbell camera — stating that the January email had been deemed a threat against Lyons. When Streever landed back in the U.S. and checked into a Manhattan hotel, a third HSI agent came to the front desk asking for him by name and left a business card. Hotel staff declined to let the agent up and turned him away.
ICE’s official position is narrow and categorical: “ICE investigates all credible threats towards its employees and officers, including threats to the ICE Director,” the agency said in a statement. Streever’s attorney, Adam Steinbaugh of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), rejects that framing outright: “A true threat is a serious expression of an intent to commit violence. This email doesn’t even come close.”
Streever’s case is not isolated. Days before HSI agents visited his home, Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker in Syracuse, New York, posted on Instagram naming ICE agent Jonathan Ross — already publicly identified by the Minnesota Star Tribune before her post — and writing, “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted.” On June 23-24, 2026, the same two HSI agents confronted her in person, at her polling place, during New York’s primary election — a place where a federal law-enforcement visit is especially sensitive.
Gonyea said the visit rattled her. “Honestly, it shook me, and I don’t think it’s something that should just be brushed off,” she said, while drawing a distinction between naming a public official and doxxing him: “I didn’t dox his personal information, such as address, phone number.” She called the confrontation “very 1984,” adding: “For ICE to come to me over a social media post just feels very 1984 to me... This is me standing on business and defending our constitutional right of free speech.”
DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis defended the confrontation in blunt terms: “If you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice. Doxxing federal law enforcement officers is a federal crime that puts their lives and their families in serious danger.” NPR reports that DHS “has not offered evidence to back up” its claim that Gonyea committed a federal crime — Ross’s identity was already public before her post.
The Syracuse polling-place visit drew reaction from both of Onondaga County’s elections commissioners. Kevin Ryan (R), the county’s Republican elections commissioner, criticized the visit as unnecessary while separately defending Gonyea’s right to post: “There was no emergency... a comedy of errors,” he said of HSI showing up at a polling site. Dustin Czarny (D), the county’s Democratic elections commissioner, said “people are scared” and flagged the incident to New York Attorney General Letitia James (D)’s office, which has confirmed it is reviewing the report.
“ICE should not be broadly targeting online speech or actively monitoring social media accounts without cause and without proper judicial protections.”
Rep. John Mannion (D-NY), in a formal letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)
Rep. John Mannion (D-NY), who represents Syracuse, sent that letter demanding answers from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) — sworn in March 24, 2026, replacing Kristi Noem — giving the department until July 10, 2026 to respond.
DISGUSTING headline by @NPR... she committed a FEDERAL CRIME by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online.
Streever and Gonyea are not the first Americans to describe federal agents showing up over speech critical of immigration enforcement. In February 2026, DHS subpoenaed Google for the identity of a Philadelphia man just four hours after he emailed a DHS prosecutor pleading for leniency toward an Afghan deportee. Agents later visited his home. The subpoena was withdrawn on February 10, 2026, after the ACLU moved to quash it.
ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project deputy director Nathan Freed Wessler said the Philadelphia case reads as part of a broader trend: “Nobody should be tracked down at their home or hotel room by federal agents in retribution for sending an email merely expressing frustration and opposition to the government’s actions,” he said. “It’s starting to look like a pattern of knocking on people’s doors to ask them questions about clearly constitutionally protected speech. And that is very troubling.”
Separately, in May 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. — under Jeanine Pirro (U.S. Attorney for D.C., a Trump-administration appointee) — subpoenaed Reddit and X for the identities of at least two anonymous users who had criticized ICE. NYCLU senior staff attorney Perry Grossman argued the pattern threatens to redraw First Amendment boundaries: “If this is the kind of speech that the administration, that DHS wants to go after, then they are trying to fundamentally redefine the First Amendment and the scope of permissible public debate.” Cato Institute’s David J. Bier put the Gonyea polling-place visit in the same frame: “ICE agents entered a polling place to intimidate a worker about her social media posts... it’s not enough for ICE to disagree; they need to stamp out dissent.”
Doxxing federal officers and agents: Is against the law... Report doxxing: 866-DHS-2-ICE
What this is — A documented account, drawn from named participants and their attorneys, of federal agents visiting American citizens over speech critical of ICE — none of it resulting in an arrest or criminal charge to date.
What this is not — An adjudicated finding of unlawful retaliation. DHS disputes the characterization and says it responds only to credible threats and doxxing; no court has yet ruled on either the Streever or Gonyea matter.
Why it matters — When federal agents visit private citizens’ homes, hotel rooms, and polling places over emails and Instagram posts, the First Amendment stakes are the story — regardless of which administration or agency is doing the knocking.
Here is what is actually established: David Streever sent a harsh, hyperbolic email; Paigelynne Gonyea posted a public agent’s name on Instagram with a pointed comment; both are U.S. citizens; neither has been arrested or criminally charged; and in both cases, the same two HSI agents showed up in person — at a home, a hotel, and a polling place. DHS says it is protecting its officers from threats and doxxing. Streever’s and Gonyea’s attorneys, a bipartisan pair of county elections commissioners, a member of Congress, and the state attorney general’s office all want more answers than DHS has given. This is an unresolved dispute over where the line sits between protecting law-enforcement officers and chilling constitutionally protected speech — and it is playing out, twice in two weeks, in upstate New York. We will update this page when DHS responds to Rep. Mannion’s July 10 deadline or when either case moves into a courtroom.
As of publication, no YouTube video specifically covers the Streever or Gonyea retaliation stories — only background coverage of the underlying Renée Good shooting exists, and we have not embedded it here to avoid implying it covers this story. No verified Truth Social post reacting to either incident could be found. Two verified X posts, from @DHSgov and @ICEgov, are embedded above. We will add video coverage if and when outlets with dedicated reporting publish it.
- 1.Fox News / Associated Press — 'Another New Yorker says officers confronted him after he criticized ICE'
- 2.NPR — 'DHS tracks down a Rochester man who sent an angry email criticizing ICE,' July 1, 2026
- 3.NPR — 'A New York poll worker's Instagram post about ICE brought agents to her polling place,' June 26, 2026
- 4.Democracy Docket — 'ICE agents confront poll worker at Syracuse, New York polling site during primary elections'
- 5.Democracy Docket — 'New York election officials react to immigration agent confronting poll worker'
- 6.Democracy Docket — 'New York poll worker confronted by ICE speaks out: "I'm even worried more about November"'
- 7.HuffPost — '2nd New Yorker Served Warning For Criticizing ICE'
- 8.13WHAM Rochester — 'Rochester man warned by ICE after writing blistering letter to agency, attorney says'
- 9.Reason — 'ICE Warns Syracuse Poll Worker to Delete a Political Instagram Post'
- 10.Reason — 'Thin-Skinned Government Agents Threaten Yet Another Critic'
- 11.ACLU — 'Department Of Homeland Security Withdraws Subpoena Targeting Man Who Criticized Them' (Philadelphia precedent)
- 12.The New Republic — 'Homeland Security: 67-Year-Old US Citizen Criticized [DHS] in Email'
Last updated July 1, 2026