Federal Judge Blocks ICE Threats Against Critic Over Condemning Email

A federal judge has ruled that emailing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to warn that their actions could bring them trouble is not, by itself, a criminal threat. On Tuesday, the judge granted a preliminary injunction barring ICE from threatening to prosecute critics for constitutionally protected speech.

The ruling came in a case involving David Strieber, who sent a sharply worded three-paragraph email in January to then-Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. Angered by the killings of two Minnesota ICE protesters, Renee Good and Alex Preti, Strieber called Lyons a “monstrous human being” who would “eat alive in shame” for defending police officers who shot and killed unarmed people who posed no threat.

Strieber also compared Lyons to a notorious high-ranking Nazi police officer and predicted that “even Trump” would eventually accuse Lyons of supporting the “blatant” killing of Americans.

ICE warning followed months after the email

“You were a monster and will go down in history as Reinhard Heydrich, the American butcher,” Strieber wrote. “You will never know peace. You will lose yourself and try to escape the burden of knowing the truth about yourself. But wherever you go you will find yourself. You will torture yourself until your last day on earth.”

ICE took no action when it received the email. Five months later, however, the agency delivered a warning notice to Strieber’s home claiming that his message could constitute a criminal threat of violence.

Such warnings are typically issued to people who threaten to assault, kidnap, or kill officials—not to people who morally condemn their actions. ICE also withheld Strieber’s emails in court while warning him that he could face state and federal prosecution “if he did not stop” making critical comments about ICE leaders.

FIRE says Strieber feared government retaliation

Strieber was not at home when investigators visited. They took the additional step of tracking him to a hotel. Lawyers with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said in a press release that the incident left him “very concerned.”

Since then, Strieber has continued to censor himself because he fears retaliation from the government. The judge’s preliminary injunction now prevents ICE from threatening prosecution over speech protected by the First Amendment.

Read the federal court’s opinion.