A 67-year-old retired grandfather from Philadelphia sent a politely-worded email to a Department of Homeland Security prosecutor asking him to show “common sense and decency” in a deportation case—and the federal government responded by issuing a subpoena for his Google account data and sending agents to his door.
WHAT’S GOING ON: According to the Washington Post, Jon (who withheld his last name to protect his family) emailed DHS prosecutor Joseph Dernbach about the case of an Afghan refugee facing deportation.
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
That same day, Jon received a notification from Google: DHS had issued an administrative subpoena “compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.” The agency didn’t need a judge or grand jury to do this. Google gave Jon just one week to challenge it.
THE DETAILS: Days later, DHS agents showed up at Jon’s home. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the U.K., Jon was understandably worried about potential violence. The agents showed him a copy of his email and wanted to hear “his side of the story.” Notably, the agents had no idea about the administrative subpoena—they said they received orders directly from DHS headquarters in Washington to interview him.
Jon couldn’t even find a record of the subpoena to show an attorney. After explaining that he found Dernbach’s email through a simple Google search, the agents agreed he committed no crimes. He’s now represented pro bono by the ACLU, whose attorneys argue the government violated laws limiting how administrative subpoenas can be used for “immigration enforcement” and targeted Jon for constitutionally protected speech.
WHY IT MATTERS: “It doesn’t take that much to make people look over their shoulder, to think twice before they speak again,” said ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler. “That’s why these kinds of subpoenas and other actions—the visits—are so pernicious. You don’t have to lock somebody up to make them reticent to make their voice heard.”
This isn’t an isolated case. Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began—Google alone received 28,622, a 15 percent jump over the previous six months. Jon was lucky enough to get picked up by the ACLU and covered by a national outlet. The question that should keep everyone up at night: How many other Americans are facing legal consequences for exercising their First Amendment rights and don’t have the resources to fight back?