Below is a statement of solidarity with the Prairieland defendants, which we encourage individuals, organizations, and groups to reproduce to demonstrate their support!
We also ask that people plan for the October 3, 2025 international day of action in solidarity with the Prairieland defendants!
We stand in solidarity with the Prairieland Defendants as community members and pursuers of a better world. In supporting them, we do it with love for their humanity, grief for their confinement, and rage for the repression they face. On July 4, 2025, protesters gathered to make a display of noise and fireworks to express solidarity with immigrants and ICE detainees at the kidnapping facility, the Prairieland Detention Center, in Johnson County. In the early morning of July 5, 10 DFW comrades were arrested; since then, the other 7 defendants were arrested as part of a wave of terrifying raids and surveillance. The state’s narrative about what happened that night and in the nights that followed is dubious and full of inconsistencies.
This case matters because not only are loved ones and comrades facing horrific conditions in the Johnson County Jail but their incarceration represents a growing pattern of movement repression. As ICE resistance amplifies, met with fascist government takeovers and ICE hiring incentives, solidarity with those stolen from their communities is ever more needed to nourish a culture of care rather than a culture of cruelty.
This case will almost certainly be used to justify sweeping expansion of repression not only of popular movements but all political activity in opposition to Trump and his regime. Authoritarianism can already be felt in everything from the US arming the Gaza genocide to the building of Cop Cities all over the country. ICE Fascism rips away the foundations of communities, spreading fear, distrust, and segregation, and criminalizes dissent. Communities are being destroyed by masked fascists everyday and are in need of support and defense — just like the Prairieland Defendants and everyone deprived of social ties and comforts due to systems of incarceration and displacement.
We stand with the DFW Support Committee as they support the Prairieland defendants, loving them through their separation from the world. We will spread the word of their struggle, help build legal defense so our comrades can see a sky without walls or chains, and promote community events and actions to rebuild community support, which state repression seeks to destroy. Through it all, side by side with our community members and loved ones on the inside, we will build a wall of resistance and resilience against the State’s efforts to dismantle our movements.