Seven more defendants receive prison terms in Texas ICE protest case

A federal court in Fort Worth sentenced seven more people Wednesday in a case stemming from a 2025 protest outside a Texas immigration detention center where a police officer was shot and wounded. The prosecutions have drawn scrutiny because the Justice Department has treated the episode as terrorism tied to alleged antifa activity, Al Jazeera and The Associated Press reported.

The sentences relate to a July 4, 2025, demonstration at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, near Dallas. According to the report, activists gathered there to oppose President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign; some people set off fireworks, and others were accused of damaging property.

Six defendants who appeared for sentencing Wednesday had pleaded guilty to providing material support to “terrorism,” according to Al Jazeera and AP. They received prison terms ranging from just under two years to 15 years.

A seventh defendant, Ines Soto, received a 50-year sentence after being convicted of providing material support to terrorists, along with charges connected to rioting and conspiracy to carry an explosive, the report said.

Prosecutors described an organized attack

Federal prosecutors said Benjamin Song, a former US Marine reservist, shot and wounded a police officer who had just arrived at the detention center during the protest. Prosecutors said Song called for rifles before opening fire, according to Al Jazeera and AP.

The Trump administration has cast the incident as terrorism. Nineteen people were arrested in the broader case, according to the report.

Some of those arrested were not at the detention center protest, Al Jazeera and AP reported. The administration has designated antifa, a loose network of left-wing antifascist activists, as a domestic terrorist organization and accused supporters of the protest of belonging to an “antifa cell.”

Justice Department prosecutors argued that firearms, body armor and first aid kits brought to the event showed harmful intent, according to the report. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement after an earlier round of sentencings that the penalties showed people the government describes as antifa terrorists would face severe consequences for attacks on law enforcement and federal sites.

Defense lawyers dispute the government’s framing

Lawyers for the defendants have largely denied their clients had antifa ties and challenged the government’s description of the protest, Al Jazeera and AP reported. They argued there was no planned ambush and said people who brought guns did so for self-defense, which they said is protected by the Second Amendment.

The defense also said the fireworks were intended as a gesture of support for immigrants held inside the detention center, according to the report.

Civil liberties advocates have warned that the case could affect how prosecutors handle protest activity across the United States. Al Jazeera and AP reported that it may also test First Amendment protections for speech and association.

The Justice Department said the first round of sentencings on June 23 marked the first criminal sentencings of alleged antifa members since Trump issued his executive order designating the movement a domestic terrorist body, according to the report.

In that earlier sentencing, eight defendants who went to trial received long prison terms. Song was sentenced to 100 years after being convicted of attempted murder in the shooting, while seven others received terms between 30 and 70 years, for a combined 450 years, Al Jazeera and AP reported.

Several defendants, including Song and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada, have filed notices of appeal. Sanchez Estrada has argued that he only moved a box of belongings, including zines, while prosecutors described the box as containing antifa materials and said he tried to hide them, according to the report.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.