Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison

A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prisonTuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.

After a three week jury trial, the nine activists were all found guilty of a slew of criminal charges in March, stemming from a Fourth of July protest at an immigrant detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, south of Fort Worth. The demonstrators arrived late at night with a plan to set off fireworks as part of a noise demonstration to show solidarity with those detained inside. A few of the protesters spontaneously broke off from the main group and vandalized cars in the parking lot, a guard shack, slashed the tires on a government van and broke a security camera. When a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his weapon, one of the activists fired an AR-15 from the woods, hitting the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.

Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Savanna Batten, and Elizabeth Soto were sentenced to 50 years in prison. Maricela Rueda, another demonstrator, was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Benjamin Song, who fired the gun at the police officer, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. The other protesters were continuing to be sentenced Tuesday morning.

Even though many of the protesters did not know each other, or were loosely affiliated, prosecutors said the attack on the officer was premeditated and part of a conspiracy. They also said the activists were part of a “North Texas antifa cell”, which was seen as part of the administration’s effort to criminalize “antifa”, which is not an organization but rather a constellation of leftwing views.

Prosecutors in the case charged and secured conviction for eight of the nine defendants with providing material support for terrorists. The ninth defendant, Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was not at the protest, but was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record after prosecutors said he moved leftwing zines and other materials at the request of Rueda, his wife, after she was arrested. Sanchez-Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday.

The charge does not require prosecutors to prove a connection to any kind of terrorist ideology, only that a defendant provided support for one of a list of several crimes, the justice department spun the convictions as proof that antifa was a terrorist organization.

The defendants in the case are a collection of activists who were loosely affiliated with one another through a local leftwing book club and gun group. During the trial, prosecutors highlighted many of the zines that the book club read as evidence of the conspiracy and ideology that linked the demonstrators. That evidence was met with widespread criticism from legal observers who said that it amounted to criminalizing freedom of speech.

Prosecutors also focused heavily on the cache of guns that many of the defendants owned and some brought to the detention center on 4 July. It is undisputed that all of the firearms were bought legally and that there was only one person who fired a weapon on 4 July. Prosecutors also highlighted other evidence they claimed proved that the protesters planned violence, including their decision to communicate and auto-delete messages on Signal, an encrypted messaging platform widely used among activists, journalists and other citizens wary of government surveillance.

Since the charges in the case, the government has brought a number of similar prosecutions against activists. Earlier this month, prosecutors filed criminal conspiracy charges against 15 activists in Minneapolis who allegedly interfered with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in performing their duties. A federal jury in Spokane, Washington, found three protesters guilty of conspiracy for participating in a 2025 protest at an ICE facility. A similar case in Chicago against protesters fell apart after it was revealed there was misconduct before grand jurors.

The Guardian wp:paragraph