Criticizing the government is not a crime, and the government should not send agents to your home for it. In January, a Connecticut man named David Streever emailed the acting head of ICE to condemn immigration raids, in harsh and angry words, after federal officers shot and killed two people in Minneapolis. He never threatened anyone. Months later, Homeland Security Investigations agents came to his house and his hotel and left a notice warning him about laws against threatening federal officials.
He was never charged, because there was no crime. The same agents handed the same warning to a poll worker in Syracuse that same day. The goal was not prosecution. The goal was to make people afraid to speak.
That is how a free country stops being free. When ordinary people learn that an angry email can bring federal agents to their door, they stop writing the email. They stop showing up. The First Amendment protects heated, even offensive, criticism of officials precisely because the people in power are the ones most tempted to punish it.
Federal law enforcement should spend its time on real threats, not on scaring citizens who spoke their minds. I am asking you to demand that the Department of Homeland Security stop opening threat investigations into constituents for protected political speech, and to hold oversight hearings on how many Americans have been visited, warned, or tracked for criticizing this administration.
