Anti-ICE Protesters Convicted of “Terrorism”

On March 13, after a three-week show trial in Fort Worth, Texas, nine anti-ICE activists were found guilty of “material support to terrorism,” “conspiracy” and other bogus charges. The witchhunt against these activists is the front line in Trump’s campaign to outlaw anyone who opposes government policy. While dropping bombs on schoolchildren in Iran, the government brands leftist activists here as “terrorists.” These verdicts are bad news for all anti-ICE protesters, leftists, working people and the oppressed. We must redouble efforts to free these nine defendants—Savanna Batten, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Benjamin “Champagne” Song, Elizabeth Soto and Ines Soto. Most face sentences of 10 to 60 years, while Song faces a possible life sentence. We say: Free the Prairieland defendants! Drop all the charges!

The case stems from a protest last July 4 by about a dozen people at the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. The plan was for a small nighttime “noise” demonstration, setting off fireworks to “bring some joy” to those inside. For the Feds, that’s “conspiracy to use and carry an explosive device” and “terrorism.” In fact, detainees inside watched the fireworks through windows and cheered. A couple of protesters sprayed graffiti on a guard booth and an ICE vehicle. It began to drizzle and the protest wound down, people heading back to their cars.

But then a local Alvarado cop pulled up with lights flashing, jumped out of his vehicle and, by his own testimony, immediately pointed his gun at the back of a departing protester. Before the cop could shoot the protester, Song allegedly fired a rifle in defense. One shot, most likely a ricochet off the ground, grazed the cop. He suffered no serious injury and returned fire. For defending a comrade, Song has grotesquely been convicted of “attempted murder.”

Police swarmed in and arrested nine that night. Ten more have been rounded up since, including friends, family and roommates. Sanchez, who was not even at the protest, was convicted of conspiring to “conceal a document” because he moved a box of zines and pamphlets to a friend’s apartment after the arrests and now faces 40 years. Owning guns, ammunition, fireworks and zines in Texas is perfectly legal. It also is not unusual for Texans—right or left—to bring guns to protests. As one prosecution witness said, “here in Texas everyone is armed,” and protests can be confrontational. Some protesters brought guns to the July 4 protest but most left them in their vehicles.

Most of those arrested in July were first charged with “attempted murder of a federal officer.” But after the Charlie Kirk assassination, Trump signed his order declaring “Antifa” a terrorist organization and the prosecutors sought a new indictment to make this a test case. The federal indictment falsely charges that the defendants belong to a “North Texas Antifa Cell,” which is branded a “domestic terrorist” organization. As some prosecution witnesses admitted, there is no such “cell” or “organization.” In reality, the protesters held a range of views, from anarchist to social democratic to none of the above. Most are LGBT folks, some read with the Emma Goldman Book Club, others practiced with the Socialist Rifle Association, while a few don’t like guns.

The entire case was a pack of manufactured evidence. Held in solitary in Texas hellhole jails, isolated from family and friends and facing a potential lifetime in prison, four of the 19 defendants capitulated to intense prosecution pressure. Turning state’s evidence, they signed whatever lies the Feds wrote for them. “My lawyer said I have to snitch, even if I have to make shit up,” one testified. Last summer, the cop who was allegedly grazed by a bullet gave a “statement” written by his lawyer that failed to mention that he had pulled his gun and pointed it at a protester! At trial, the ICE officer whose name was on the official incident report denied having written or even seen it before. The prosecution’s “expert” witness on Antifa, who helped them “craft” their terrorism charges, was a crackpot conspiracy theorist at the dubious Center for Security Policy, labeled an anti-Muslim “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The presiding judge is reactionary Trump appointee Mark Pittman. He fined defense lawyers for fighting for their clients, driving one off the case. During the first day of jury selection, the judge became unhinged by the large number of potential jurors who voiced their opposition to ICE, as well as jurors who said it made sense to take guns to protests. When he noticed that a defense lawyer was wearing a graphic of MLK on her shirt, he seized on that as a pretext to declare a “mistrial,” claiming the jury pool had been tainted and needed to be replaced. Later, he ruled that the defense could not present evidence or argue that Song had fired in self-defense of fellow protesters.

Still to come are sentencing hearings, appeals, and state court trials. It is urgently necessary for the left, anti-deportation activists, trade unionists and all of Trump’s perceived enemies to take a stand against this serious threat. Every day of the trial, activists came out in solidarity in a park across the street from the courthouse, greeting the defendants with chants as they left court in police vans. The Fort Worth police began to harass the activists as the case ground on.

“Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa,” intoned Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Terrorism” is the same lie federal authorities threw at anti-ICE protesters they murdered in Minneapolis. Last month, Congressional Republicans and Fox News painted the Democratic Socialists of America and Party for Socialism and Liberation as possible “foreign agents” for connecting ICE crimes to those of U.S. imperialism abroad. Two anti-ICE activists in Los Angeles were convicted last month on federal charges of “stalking” for following an ICE agent in his car. As the PDC said in a February 10 statement on Prairieland:

PDC supporters were in Fort Worth every week of the trial. We have donated $2,000 to the legal defense, done our best to get the word out and will keep fighting for these activists. We strongly urge you to do the same. For more information: prairielanddefendants.com/get-involved.