“For the first time ever, the FBI has arrested anarchist violent extremists and charged Antifa-aligned individuals with material support to terrorism.” – FBI Director, Kash Patel
On October 16th, federal prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment against two people from North Texas that they allege helped orchestrate an attack at an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas.
The indictment claims that both people are supposedly members of an “Antifa cell” that planned and executed an attack on officers at the Prairieland Detention Center in early July, leaving one local Alvarado cop with a gunshot wound to the neck.
The allegations by the federal government stem from a noise demonstration that occurred in July of this year, outside of the detention center in Alvarado that houses between 1,000 – 2,000 people awaiting immigration hearings and pending deportation orders. This is the same detention facility that Palestinian political prisoner Leqaa Kordia has been unjustly detained in for over the last 6 months — and the same detention facility former political prisoner Ángel Espinosa-Villegas was also briefly held in, after being “released” from federal prison and before being deported back to Chile earlier this year.
Prairieland is as much a concentration camp as every other ICE facility in the country.
On July 4th, a number of individuals arrived to the detention center for an autonomous noise demonstration to show solidarity with migrants detained inside the facility. Noise demonstrations are a common form of protest that occur at jails, prisons, and other facilities that incarcerate people. The goal of these actions is to make enough noise so that people on the inside are able to hear the support from their community on the outside.
Court records claim that people at the demonstration allegedly began to shoot off fireworks into the air, and that DHS cars and a guard shed were vandalized with spray paint.
After federal officers called local police in for backup, the federal indictment alleges that “black clad militants” began to fire rifles at both local and federal law enforcement, ultimately shooting one of the officers in the neck. Police responded by arresting everyone in the area.
Only one of the defendants indicted last Thursday was arrested the night of the alleged “attack”. The other defendant was detained in the midst of multiple arrests that occurred in the following days, all throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Fox News initially broke this story of the two new federal indictments early last Thursday morning, and they misreported that one of the two people indicted on the terrorism charges is the initial suspected shooter. The person actually alleged to be the one who shot the police officer, following an extensive manhunt for them over this past summer, has still not been indicted federally.
In an effort to collectively squash dissent, what began as a normal noise demonstration gone rogue has now turned into what the government has called a “planned ambush”and “coordinated attack”.
Since July 4th, sweeping raids have occurred at the homes of many loved ones and supporters of the defendants, where the FBI has brutally deployed flash-bang grenades and thrown bags over people’s heads as they violently detain them. 17 people have since been held in state and federal custody, all on suspicion of having either been at or aiding the events at the Prairieland Detention Center. An 18th arrest was made earlier this week, with the new defendant in the case being hit with a state charge of “aiding in the commission of terrorism”.
Similar to the rhetoric that was used to collectively target and prosecute people that protested against the construction of “Cop City” in the Weelaunee Forest of Atlanta, the state has now alleged that all of the defendants they have abducted are part of a larger criminal conspiracy — labeling them an “Antifa cell”.
Many defendants maintain that they do not know one another, and some defendants have never even stepped foot in the city that the “attack” occurred in. And yet still, the state has collectively grouped these people together on the basis of their alleged political affiliations and relationships to other co-defendants, in an attempt to collectively make an example out of those that express dissent against the fascist government. Some defendants have been indicted in this case for simply removing someone from a private signal group chat, possessing radical literature or even certain types of board games, and other blatantly preposterous reasons relating to their supposed political ideologies. The state even seized printing equipment from the home of two co-defendants and argued that their production of left-wing reading materials was evidence of responsibility of criminal acts.
“The recent federal indictment makes false claims, mischaracterizes facts, and takes quotes out of context,” said a spokesperson for the DFW Support Committee. “Claims of adherence to a political ideology, whether true or not, are not grounds to charge someone with terrorism and does not belong in an indictment.”
While most defendants have spent the duration of pre-trial in county jail, one of the defendants was held in custody with an ICE hold, ordering the revocation of his green card and impending deportation from the country. After receiving a jail call from a family member that was arrested the night of the alleged “attack” in Alvarado, police arrested him with a box of zines in his car — labeling them as “anti-government propaganda”. He became the 11th arrest in relation to this case, and is the only defendant aside from the two indicted last Thursday to be hit with both state and federal charges.
After almost three months of being held in custody without being arraigned, the defendants all finally appeared in federal court this past September. Because of this prolonged delay in their initial court appearances, defendants were unable to be appointed public defenders or even be able to consult with lawyers about the government’s case against them.
Local legal experts claim that the majority of cases in the county are seen before a judge between one to three days after a person’s initial arrest. There has been absolutely zero reason given as to why the defendants in this case have been given such completely different treatment.
During their first court appearance that occurred in late September, a US Magistrate Judge found probable cause to formally charge all those arrested, and he ordered the defendants to be held in custody until a potential trial. Many defendants have since been transported from Johnson County to the Wichita County Jail — aside from one defendant who has been bonded out again from custody following his third arrest, as well as a number of other defendants who have been transferred to federal custody at FMC Carswell. This transfer to Wichita County will mean that defendants are a little over two hours away from their loved ones in Dallas-Fort Worth, and this is just yet another move by the state to continue to isolate the defendants in this case from their community.
A support committee composed of loved ones reported that a number of the defendants have been held in solitary confinement cells, with no official explanation or justification as to why. All have been held on bonds between $5- $15 million while reporting inhumane detention conditions, such as sexual harassment, physical abuse, and dangerous neglect. One defendant reported being forced to clean up another inmates’ feces smeared in the solitary confinement cell that they were roughly thrown into. Another has reported mandatory strip searches that occur endlessly throughout the day. The list just continues to go on.
On October 1st, the state of Texas indicted 14 people in the case on state charges of terrorism, aggravated assault against a public servant, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer, aiding in the commission of terrorism, smuggling of persons, hindering prosecution of terrorism, and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence. The state also imposed an additional charge of “engaging in organized criminal activity” for all 14 defendants. Many defendants will be fighting concurrent state and federal cases, and further charges against the defendants in this case are still pending and anticipated, given the fact that only 3 defendants have been indicted federally so far.
This most recent grand jury indictment last Thursday is the first time the federal government has officially filed terrorism related charges against anti-fascists, and it comes just 21 days since Donald Trump signed an official Executive Order designating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. It is interesting to note that Trump’s Executive Order regarding “Antifa” was also signed the same day Prairieland defendants were finally arraigned in federal court, after many months of delays in their cases. Just three days later, the White House also released National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which specifically orders all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combatting “Antifa” as a domestic terrorism threat.
Many legal experts have challenged the validity of Trump’s September 22nd Executive Order, given the fact that the President does not retain the ability to designate any domestic groups as “terrorist organizations”. This is because the First Amendment of the Constitution protects the right of individuals to exercise free speech and assembly, and the Supreme Court has additionally upheld that people also maintain the freedom of association to express, promote, and defend common interests. Many legal experts have argued that this Executive Order is largely just symbolic in domestic law, given that terrorism itself is not a standalone crime under federal statue and charges hinge on specific criminal conduct, rather than membership or allegiance to an organization itself.
Given all of this, it is important to note that both defendants last Thursday have been federally indicted on charges of “providing material support to terrorists”, and not the legally distinctive charge of supporting a terrorist organization, despite Donald Trump’s designation of “Antifa” as a formal terrorist group. The two defendants have also been charged with three counts of “attempted murder of officers and employees of the United States”, as well as three counts of “discharging a firearm during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a crime of violence”.
In the indictment, the Department of Justice claims that “Antifa is a militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the U.S. government, law enforcement authorities and the system of law.”
From Trump’s Executive Order, to these most recent indictments, and even Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announcing that his office would be launching undercover investigations into “left-wing political violence” in the state, citing the July 4th action in Alvarado as motivation for the decision — it is very clear that the state is doing everything possible to deter dissent and invoke fear and paranoia in those that take a stand against fascism.
The one defendant who has since been bonded out from custody awaiting trial has reported having spyware installed on his phone, being barred from consuming any anti-government or “violent” content until the duration of his trial is complete. This is the same defendant that the state tried to continue to keep in custody by drastically increasing his bond, using a new Texas law that passed just weeks before his court hearing that allows for defendants accused of specific charges to have their bonds increased at any time with little notice.
His last arrest occurred because the state alleged he violated his original bond conditions. After he made online searches for how to replace his Gameboy Advance SP battery, his bond officer searched up how to use that very battery to make “trigger devices” and shared it with the DA — alleging it was the defendant who had made those searches. He was released from custody after his attorneys were able to prove that the evidence against him was fabricated.
While all of this is concerning enough in and of itself, it is worth noting that the latest arrest in the case comes less than a month after felony charges were filed against Johnson County Sheriff Adam King, who is directly involved in this case. He is currently facing charges of aggravated perjury, corrupt influence, and abuse of official capacity.
It is very clear that the state of Texas and the Feds are going above and beyond to establish antifascism as a thought crime that turns someone into an enemy of the state. When asked by a reporter what would happen to someone who took to the streets and proclaimed to be “Antifa” following the roundtable that occurred at the White House with right-wing personalities who “briefed” the president on “Antifa terrorism,” Donald Trump hinted towards the death penalty. This is the same roundtable where the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, referred to the broader “Antifa” movement as being equivalent to Hamas, Hezbollah, and MS-13.
Given that these federal indictments in Texas are the first of their kind, the case of the Pairieland defendants will have massive implications and provide potential insight into how the federal government plans to target those that they deem “Antifa” and therefore enemies of the state.
We will be following these cases closely and reporting on them as they proceed.
source: We Will Free US