Central NY NewsUpdated: Jun. 26, 2026, 12:59 p.m.Published: Jun. 26, 2026, 6:00 a.m.Federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement speak with PaigeLynne Gonyea, a poll worker, over an Instagram post she made in January, Tuesday, June 23, 2026.Provided photoBy Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.comTwo civil rights experts criticized a move by federal agents to confront a Syracuse woman to get her to remove an Instagram post that referred to the agent who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis.Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walked into the Syracuse polling place where Paigelynne Gonyea was working Tuesday. They delivered an ominous letter that seemed to suggest she was in legal trouble because of a January post that named Good’s killer as Jonathan Ross, another ICE agent mentioned in countless news stories around the world.The critics called the visit by two ICE employees from New Jersey a toothless, wasteful scare tactic.Gonyea’s post in January said: “Breaking: The ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good in broad daylight has been identified as Jonathan Ross by the Minnesota Star Tribune. I think today is a good day for Jonathan to be indicted.”The two agents came from Homeland Security’s Office of Professional Responsibility – an office that examines allegations of staff misconduct. It’s the office that could be investigating the conduct of ICE agents and Border Patrol officers in Minnesota, where agents killed Good and protester Alex Pretti.In this case, however, they came to Syracuse to investigate a public citizen on social media.The two agents drove a car with New Jersey license plates. They carried a folder with copies of Gonyea’s social media posts and her driver’s license. They went to her old apartment, then called her and walked into her workplace, which happened to be a polling place for New York’s primary election.The agents wore plain clothes and badges. They handed Gonyea a written warning that said she could be subject to both state and federal prosecution if she did not remove her Instagram account and change her behavior. The warning letter had threatening language, explaining that it is a crime to threaten to kidnap, assault or murder a federal agent.They asked her to sign it and text it to them.She said she has no intention of signing it or removing her social media posts.Perry Grossman, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, told syracuse.com that the behavior was designed to be a “scare tactic.”Grossman said he has not seen a similar warning letter, and he said it is unclear whether it had any legal teeth.“I can’t imagine any reason to bring the notice, which is not a document I’ve ever seen or heard of before, except to try and intimidate them and intimidate others,” Grossman said. “People should continue to speak out and demand law enforcement accountability for the kinds of egregious abuses that we saw certainly with the killing of Renee Good, but also lost of other law enforcement abuses by ICE and others that are occurring everywhere.”Gonyea contacted NYCLU and, on Tuesday, she spoke with staff for state Attorney General Letitia James.James is reviewing the situation but has not opened an investigation, her staff said.Gonyea also talked to staff at the state Board of Elections. Federal elections law prohibits the deployment of armed federal agents, troops or military personnel at polling sites. Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, said it is a stretch to believe Gonyea’s online comments posed a threat to federal agents.It is troubling that government officials are tracking posts and sending government officials to serve papers on their critics, he said.“The government action here was a show of force intended to chill speech and criticism of public officials and public policy,” he said. “I guess they accomplished the mission. But now someone is in legal trouble for exercising First Amendment rights.”The New York State Libertarian Party called the agents’ behavior “unacceptable government intimidation.”“In a free society, Americans have the right to criticize public officials, comment on law enforcement actions, and call for accountability through the legal system,” the party posted on Facebook. “Relying on news reports to name an agent already identified in the press and advocating for an indictment is protected political speech.”Adam Steinbaugh, lawyer for the national Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, weighed in.“A free America doesn’t dispatch federal law enforcement agents to intimidate someone for an Instagram post of publicly available information,” he said. “Free speech is the bedrock of a free society, and the First Amendment squarely prohibits ICE agents from intimidating Americans for nothing more than repeating information from a newspaper report.”Homeland Security officials did not respond to questions.Has the federal government approached you about something you said or wrote? Call reporter Michelle Breidenbach at 315-470-3186 or email mbreidenbach@syracuse.com.Syracuse police stopped to help. But they found it was ICE detaining 3 men Judge blocks New York law banning ICE agents from wearing masksMo Brown among 4 Democratic lawmakers in Syracuse calling for Congress to abolish ICE Syracuse.com goes to court to unseal documents in suspicious immigration arrestMadison County sheriff will defy NY AG’s warning: ‘I’m still going to work with ICE’Michelle Breidenbach covers immigration, Interstate 81, rebuilding the East Adams neighborhood, real estate assessment, property taxes, lead paint poisoning and other public affairs topics for Syracuse.com and...