A Syracuse poll worker received an unexpected visit from federal immigration agents on Tuesday, June 24, 2026, while working Election Day at the Central Library in Syracuse. The agents questioned Paigelynne Gonyea about an Instagram post she had made five months earlier regarding an ICE agent involved in a fatal shooting in Minnesota.
Gonyea, who has more than 33,000 followers on Instagram and over 100,000 on TikTok, received a voicemail while working the polls from someone identifying himself as a Homeland Security special agent calling from a New Jersey number.
"We were just by your apartment," the caller stated in the voicemail, adding that he had obtained her phone number from her significant other. "We were just calling you in reference to a post that we believe you made on Instagram where you doxxed an ICE agent back in January."
Gonyea denied to NPR that she had ever doxxed an ICE agent. Doxxing typically refers to releasing sensitive personal information such as addresses and phone numbers, though the Trump administration has attempted to broaden this definition in recent months.
After returning the agent's call, Gonyea was asked to come outside the polling location. She declined, expressing discomfort with the request. Her fellow poll worker, 70-year-old Sheilia Milledge, supported her decision.
"There's too many people being kidnapped by ICE and I can't run behind her," Milledge told NPR. "I use a cane."
During a lull in voter traffic, Gonyea invited the agents inside to speak with her. A man and a woman with ICE badges entered the library, an encounter that was recorded on video by Milledge and another poll worker. On the recording, Milledge can be heard attempting to contact city officials about the situation.
The agents' entry into the polling location raises significant legal questions. Federal law prohibits armed federal law enforcement from entering polling places, though it remains unclear whether these agents were armed. Additionally, a recently enacted New York state law specifically bars immigration agents from entering voting sites.
Kevin Ryan, the local Republican county election commissioner, confirmed through a Department of Homeland Security contact that the individuals with badges were legitimate agents. He characterized the entire incident as "a comedy of errors from beginning to end," noting that Gonyea should not have invited the agents inside and that their entry into the polling place was "a mistake." Ryan also questioned the timing of the confrontation, asking why agents needed to address a social media post on Election Day.
According to Gonyea, the agents possessed a file containing her personal information, including her name, address, date of birth, height, weight, and eye color. They presented her with a document from ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility claiming her Instagram account might have violated federal law prohibiting threats or intimidation of federal officers. The notice prominently warned "YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW" and requested that she "promptly remove and/or discontinue the aforementioned behavior."
Gonyea refused to sign the document or delete any of her posts. While the agents never explicitly identified which post prompted their visit, she stated they confirmed it concerned Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Renée Macklin Good in Minnesota. She observed a screenshot in the agents' file of her January post featuring a photo of Ross, which she had published days after the shooting. The post noted that the Minnesota Star Tribune had identified him as Jonathan Ross and included her comment: "I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted." Ross has not been indicted for his role in Macklin Good's death.
"I didn't say anything that would incite violence or cause anyone to want to go out of their way to go harm an ICE agent, or their family, or anything like that," Gonyea told NPR. "What I said was within the confines of free speech."
Following the encounter, Gonyea shared the document, voicemail, and video of the incident on her Instagram account. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to questions about the voicemail or the agents' actions.
Civil liberties organizations have expressed alarm over the incident, which occurs amid broader concerns about the agency's surveillance of peaceful protesters and activists. Perry Grossman of the New York Civil Liberties Union emphasized that demanding government accountability for the killing of an American citizen represents highly protected political speech.
"If this is the kind of speech that the administration, that DHS wants to go after, then they are trying to fundamentally redefine the First Amendment and the scope of permissible public debate," Grossman stated. "And that is wrong. That is ridiculous."
For Gonyea, the experience evoked comparisons to George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, which depicts a mass surveillance state. "That was one of my favorite books growing up," she told NPR. "I just did not think that I would be living in a time where it's starting to parallel."
The incident underscores growing tensions between federal immigration enforcement activities and constitutional protections for political speech, particularly as they intersect with the electoral process in Central New York communities.
