On Tuesday, June 23, 2026, during New York's primary election, two federal agents confronted Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker, at the Syracuse polling place where she was working. A DHS agent had first left her a voicemail about a post “where you doxxed an ICE agent back in January”; the agents went to a former address, and when they reached her by phone, Gonyea, saying she was afraid to meet them alone outside, asked them to come into the polling place. They carried a folder with copies of her social-media posts and her driver's license, and handed her an unsigned warning notice from ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility saying they were investigating threats against ICE personnel and asking her to “remove and/or discontinue” the behavior. It said she could face federal and state prosecution.
Gonyea said she believed the warning concerned a January post that named Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, after news outlets had identified him. She captioned it, “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted,” and said she had not shared his address or phone number. She refused to sign or delete it: “For ICE to come to me over a social media post just feels very 1984 to me.”
DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said Gonyea “committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online” and shared with the AP a different, partly redacted post from her account that DHS says contained Ross's address. Gonyea said she does not recall posting his address and cannot find such a post; Syracuse.com said it could not independently verify DHS's claim. No charges have been reported (see An ICE Officer Kills Renee Good in Minneapolis; Noem Calls It Domestic Terrorism and Trump Falsely Says She Ran Over the Officer and ICE Is Watching Its Online Critics Around the Clock and Subpoenaing Social Media Companies to Unmask Them).
Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said election law gives law enforcement no role inside a polling place unless responding to an emergency, with “no indication of that here.” The state Board of Elections said the incident “did not disrupt voting and was not related to the election process,” and no voters were present. Rep. John Mannion wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that “it appears that this operation was designed to intimidate citizens,” asking who ordered it and how many others had been asked to sign similar documents, with a July 10 deadline. Gonyea told Democracy Docket, “This is bigger than me,” and said, “I'm kinda now even worried more about November.”
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry dated the visit June 24 and called it Election Day; AP reports it happened Tuesday, June 23, during New York's primary, and the date and title now say so. It described agents tracking Gonyea down at her job; she had invited them into the polling place after they called her. It omitted DHS's allegation that she posted Ross's address, which is now included along with her denial. It said the story was first reported by The New Republic; Syracuse.com reported it first, a day earlier. It called Good “an unarmed woman” and the post “constitutionally protected speech”; the first is not in the cited sources and the second is disputed by DHS, so both were removed.