Join us this Tuesday, December 9 for an in-person anti-repression workshop where we will contextualize the Prairieland cases within a larger pattern of state repression, and build skills and strategies to resist the attack on our communities together.
This workshop will be hosted in Dallas-Fort Worth by the National Lawyers Guild’s Director of Mass Defense and co-directors at the People’s Law Collective, which helped beat the Atlanta Cop City RICO cases.
Please email us at dfwsupportcommittee@hacari.com for more details.
Nine Defendants in Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest CasePlead Not Guilty in Federal Arraignments This Week
Federal Jury Trials Are Scheduled to Start January 5 for Nine Defendants, As Sentencing Hearings Approach in March for Seven Defendants Who Pleaded Guilty Last Month
DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — Nine defendants in the Prairieland ICE Detention Center protest case pleaded ‘not guilty’ today to federal charges, including riot, discharging a firearm, attempted murder, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to conceal documents. A federal superseding indictment was filed in the Prairieland case on November 13 by Acting US Attorney Nancy Larson, just four days before Trump appointed former federal prosecutor Ryan Raybould as US Attorney on November 17.
Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, Benjamin Song, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto pleaded ‘not guilty’ at their federal arraignments on December 3. All nine defendants are fighting their charges by taking their cases to trial. Federal jury trials are scheduled to begin January 5, 2026, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth.
“The superseding indictment makes unproven claims, mischaracterizes facts, and takes quotes out of context,” said Stephanie Shiver, wife of defendant Meagan Morris. “Claims of adherence to a political ideology like anti-fascism, whether true or not, are not grounds to charge someone with terrorism and do not belong in an indictment,” continued Shiver. “By associating the Prairieland case with Antifa, the government is using terrorism charges to spread fear and intimidation, and to carry out sweeping political repression.”
Prejudicial statements related to these cases have been made repeatedly by officials at the highest levels of government, undermining the defendants’ ability to get a fair trial. The Trump administration has publicly claimed that the Prairieland case is the first legal case against Antifa, while Trump declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating Antifa as a domestic terrorism threat. FBI director Kash Patel has called the Prairieland defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the case on X.
Yet, supporters are refuting the claims of terrorism and planned violence. “As the Prairieland case progresses, it looks more and more like a protest case involving people expressing solidarity with detained immigrants,” said Amber Lowrey, sister of defendant Savanna Batten. “The federal government is trying to reframe protest activity as terrorism, and we’re seeing this attempted across the country, from Chicago to Portland, and now here in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The recent arraignments and not guilty pleas come as the District Court of Johnson County is set to hear a motion to quash the State indictment against Dario Sanchez on January 8. Fifteen people were indicted on State charges in the Prairieland case and nine people were indicted on federal charges, forcing many defendants to concurrently fight their State and federal charges. Seven defendants pleaded guilty to federal charges last month and are awaiting sentencing in March.
Exorbitant bonds of up to $15 million are being used in the State cases to imprison people who do not represent a flight risk or a danger to the community. Supporters believe that pretrial detention is being used by the government to hinder the defense and to maintain the dominant narrative in the media.
The Prairieland case stems from a noise demonstration in solidarity with detainees at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025. Toward the end of the demonstration, an officer with the Alvarado Police Department arrived and allegedly quickly became involved in an exchange of gunfire with someone else on the scene. The officer sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital shortly afterwards. Ten people were arrested at the scene or shortly after, and a manhunt ensued in the subsequent days for another defendant. Eight more defendants were arrested in the days and weeks following the protest.
Daniel Sanchez is facing federal charges for what free speech advocates say is a clear attack on the First Amendment.
Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot.
There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas artist who wasn’t even at the protest. Daniel “Des” Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained “Antifa materials” after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there.
But the boxed materials aren’t Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, or whatever MAGA officials claim “Antifa” uses to wage its imaginary war on America. As prosecutors laid out in the July criminal complaint that led to the indictment, they were zines and pamphlets. Some contain controversial ideas — one was titled “Insurrectionary Anarchy” — but they’re fully constitutionally protected free speech. The case demonstrates the administration’s intensifying efforts to criminalize left-wing activists after Donald Trump announced in September that he was designating “Antifa” as a “major terrorist organization” — a legal designation that doesn’t exist for domestic groups — following the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Sanchez was first indicted in October on charges of “corruptly concealing a document or record” as a standalone case, but the new indictment merges his charges with those against the other defendants, likely in hopes of burying the First Amendment problems with the case against him under prosecutors’ claims about the alleged shooting.
It’s an escalation of a familiar tactic. In 2023, Georgia prosecutors listed “zine” distribution as part of the conspiracy charges against 61 Stop Cop City protesters in a sprawling RICO indictment that didn’t bother to explain how each individual defendant was involved in any actual crime. I wrote back then about my concern that this wasn’t just sloppy overreach, but also a blueprint for censorship. Those fears have now been validated by Sanchez’s prosecution solely for possessing similar literature.
Photos of the zines Daniel Sanchez is charged with “corruptly concealing.” Photo: U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas
There have been other warnings that cops and prosecutors think they’ve found a constitutional loophole — if you can’t punish reporting it, punish transporting it. Los Angeles journalist Maya Lau is suing the LA County Sheriff’s Department for secretly investigating her for conspiracy, theft of government property, unlawful access of a computer, burglary, and receiving stolen property. According to her attorneys, her only offense was reporting on a list of deputies with histories of misconduct for the Los Angeles Times.
If you can’t punish reporting it, punish transporting it.
It’s also reminiscent of the Biden administration’s case against right-wing outlet Project Veritas for possessing and transporting Ashley Biden’s diary, which the organization bought from a Florida woman later convicted of stealing and selling it. The Constitution protects the right to publish materials stolen by others — a right that would be meaningless if they couldn’t possess the materials in the first place.
Despite the collapses of the Cop City prosecution and the Lau investigation — and its own dismissal of the Project Veritas case — the Trump administration has followed those dangerous examples, characterizing lawful activism and ideologies as terrorist conspiracies (a strategy Trump allies also floated during this first term) to seize the power to prosecute pamphlet possession anytime they use the magic word “Antifa.”
That’s a chilling combination for any journalist, activist, or individual who criticizes Trump. National security reporters have long dealt with the specter of prosecution under the archaic Espionage Act for merely obtaining government secrets from sources, particularly after the Biden administration extracted a guilty plea from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But the rest of the press — and everyone else, for that matter — understood that merely possessing written materials, no matter what they said, is not a crime.
Guilt by Literature
At what point does a literary collection or newspaper subscription become prosecutorial evidence under the Trump administration’s logic? Essentially, whenever it’s convenient. The vagueness is a feature, not a bug. When people don’t know which political materials might later be deemed evidence of criminality, the safest course is to avoid engaging with controversial ideas altogether.
The slippery slope from anarchist zines to conventional journalism isn’t hypothetical, and we’re already sliding fast. Journalist Mario Guevara can tell you that from El Salvador, where he was deported in a clear case of retaliation for livestreaming a No Kings protest. So can Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, as she awaits deportation proceedings for co-writing an opinion piece critical of Israel’s wars that the administration considers evidence of support for terrorism.
At least two journalists lawfully in the U.S. — Ya’akub Ira Vijandre and Sami Hamdi — were nabbed by ICE just last month. The case against Vijandre is partially based on his criticism of prosecutorial overreach in the Holy Land Five case and his liking social media posts that quote Quranic verses, raising the question of how far away we are from someone being indicted for transporting a Quran or a news article critical of the war on terror.
Sanchez’s case is prosecutorial overreach stacked on more prosecutorial overreach. The National Lawyers Guild criticized prosecutors’ tenuous dot-connecting to justify holding 18 defendants responsible for one gunshot wound. Some defendants were also charged with supporting terrorism due to their alleged association with “Antifa.” Anarchist zines were cited as evidence against them, too.
Sanchez was charged following a search that ICE proclaimed on social media turned up “literal insurrectionist propaganda” he had allegedly transported from his home to an apartment, noting that “insurrectionary anarchism is regarded as the most serious form of domestic (non-jihadi) terrorist threat.” The tweet also said that Sanchez is a green card holder granted legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The indictment claims Sanchez was transporting those materials to conceal them because they incriminated his wife. But how can possession of literature incriminate anyone, let alone someone who isn’t even accused of anything but being present when someone else allegedly fired a gun? Zines aren’t contraband; it’s not illegal to be an anarchist or read about anarchism. I don’t know why Sanchez allegedly moved the box of documents, but if it was because he (apparently correctly) feared prosecutors would try to use them against his wife, that’s a commentary on prosecutors’ lawlessness, not Sanchez’s.
Violent rhetoric is subject to punishment only when it constitutes a “true threat” of imminent violence. Even then, the speaker is held responsible, not anyone merely in possession of their words.
Government prosecutors haven’t alleged the “Antifa materials” contained any “true threats,” or any other category of speech that falls outside the protection of the First Amendment. Nor did they allege that the materials were used to plan the alleged actions of protesters on July 4 (although they did allege that the materials were “anti-government” and “anti-Trump”).
We don’t need a constitutional right to publish (or possess) only what the government likes.
Even the aforementioned “Insurrectionary Anarchy: Organizing for Attack” zine, despite its hyperbolic title, reads like a think piece, not a how-to manual. It advocates for tactics like rent strikes and squatting, not shooting police officers. Critically, it has nothing to do with whether Sanchez’s wife committed crimes on July 4.
Being guilty of possessing literature is a concept fundamentally incompatible with a free society. We don’t need a constitutional right to publish (or possess) only what the government likes, and the “anti-government” literature in Sanchez’s box of zines is exactly what the First Amendment protects. With history and leaders like Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán as a guide, we also know it’s highly unlikely that Trump’s censorship crusade will stop with a few radical pamphlets.
The Framers Loved Zines
There’s an irony in a supposedly conservative administration treating anti-government pamphlets as evidence of criminality. Many of the publications the Constitution’s framers had in mind when they authored the First Amendment’s press freedom clause bore far more resemblance to Sanchez’s box of zines than to the output of today’s mainstream news media.
Revolutionary-era America was awash in highly opinionated, politically radical literature. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was designed to inspire revolution against the established government. Newspapers like the Boston Gazette printed inflammatory writings by Samuel Adams and others urging the colonies to prepare for war after the Coercive Acts. The Declaration of Independence itself recognized the right of the people to rise up. It did not assume the revolution of the time would be the last one.
One might call it “literal insurrectionist propaganda” — and some of it was probably transported in boxes.
The framers enshrined press freedom not because they imagined today’s professionally trained journalists maintaining careful neutrality. They protected it because they understood firsthand the need for journalists and writers who believed their government had become tyrannical to espouse revolution.
For all their many faults, the framers were confident enough in their ideas that they were willing to let them be tested. If the government’s conduct didn’t call for radical opposition, then radical ideas wouldn’t catch on. It sure looks like the current administration doesn’t want to make that bet.
This week, defendants Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Song, Meagan Morris, Ines Soto, Liz Soto, Savanna Batten, Maricela Rueda, and Daniel Sanchez Estrada were federally indicted together on the same case. These defendants, except for Sanchez Estrada, were indicted on a range of charges including riot, material support of terrorism, use of explosive, attempted murder, and discharge of a deadly weapon. Sanchez Estrada was indicted on corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal a document. Defendants Joy Gibson, Nathan Baumann, Lynette Sharp, Susan Kent, and Rebecca Morgan were charged with a single count of material support of terrorism. These defendants have signed plea deals and will formally enter a guilty plea on Wednesday, November 19 and Monday, November 24. The trial date for the federal case against Evetts, Hill, and others will likely be set in by the end of the month, and we expect the date to be in late December 2025 or early January 2026.
On the state case, Janette Goering had a writ of habeas corpus hearing on a reduction to her $5 million bond. She was denied the bond reduction with no explanation. Susan Kent pled not guilty to state charges and has a state jury trial set for March 2026. Dario Sanchez‘s state jury trial is still set for January 2026.
Twelve More People Federally Charged in the July 4 Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest Case
Majority of Defendants Expected to Enter ‘Not Guilty’ Pleas December 3, Refusing Early Plea Offer of Up To 15 Years in Prison
DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — Twelve people were federally charged late last week in connection with the immigrant solidarity demonstration at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center on July 4, 2025. The new indictment and charges, including rioting, attempted murder, and material support for terrorism, came as a majority of defendants are expected to plead not guilty on December 3. Notably, federal prosecutors are offering early plea deals with recommended sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
A number of defendants could plead guilty in the coming days as a result of pressure by the federal government. The terms of the plea agreements have not been made public, but some defendants are refusing to cooperate against their codefendants. Historically, in politically motivated cases, defendants who take federal plea deals that involve cooperating with the government against their codefendants have not necessarily received more lenient sentences, and may not lessen the potential legal harm stemming from their corresponding State cases.
“The prosecution is grasping at straws,” said National Lawyers Guild member Kris Hermes. “Plea deals offered this early show the government is desperate for a quick conviction that fits their nonsense ‘Antifa’ narrative. This case is a shoddy attempt to terrorize the movement in solidarity with immigrants, but it’s not going to work.”
The defendants who were federally charged last week were added to the case of Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts, who were federally indicted last month. US District Court Judge Mark Pittman granted the government’s motion earlier in November to designate the Prairieland case as “complex”, thereby delaying the trials of Hill and Evetts, which were scheduled to start later this month. Another defendant, Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was previously indicted separately and has now been added to this case, and his trial has been delayed from early December, as originally scheduled. It’s now unclear when Hill, Evetts, Sanchez-Estrada, and the other defendants will go to trial.
The Prairieland case has been hailed by the Trump administration as the first legal case against Antifa. FBI director Kash Patel called the defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the case on X. On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorism threat.
The latest indictments come just weeks after criminal charges were filed against Johnson County Sheriff Adam King, whose office is working with the federal government to prosecute the Prairieland defendants. Supporters of the defendants call into question the credibility and integrity of King and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. “I’m just worried about the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office respecting defendants’ rights and following the law,” said Irina Popova, a member of the DFW Support Committee. King is facing four felony charges, including aggravated perjury, corrupt influence, and abuse of official capacity, casting doubt about the veracity of the Prairieland case.
The new charges have been devastating for not only the defendants but also their families and loved ones. “It was really heartbreaking to see my sister is facing eleven of the twelve total charges. We all want her to come home,” said Diana Rueda-Muñoz, sister of Maricela Rueda. “But she’s strong, and we stand with her as she fights these outrageous charges.”
In addition to the federal charges, a total of fifteen defendants were also indicted last month on state charges, including aggravated assault, engaging in organized criminal activity, and hindering the prosecution of terrorism. The concurrent state and federal charges are forcing some defendants to defend themselves in two separate but related cases, with testimony and evidence from one potentially impacting and prejudicing the other.
The various cases stem from a noise demonstration in solidarity with ICE detainees at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025. Toward the end of the demonstration, an officer with the Alvarado Police Department arrived and allegedly quickly became involved in an exchange of gunfire with someone else on the scene. The officer sustained minor injuries, and was released from the hospital shortly afterwards. Ten people were arrested at the scene or shortly after, and a manhunt ensued in the subsequent days for another defendant. Eight more defendants were arrested in the days and weeks following the protest.
The Worker conducted an interview with a supporter of the Dallas/Fort Worth Support Committee (unaffiliated with The Worker), which has been organizing in defense of the anti-ICE activists in connection with a protest outside the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Alvarado, Texas. The demonstrators face trumped up domestic terrorism charges, with the case serving as a testing grounds for the Trump administration’s new “Antifa” executive order targeting anti-imperialist activism with terrorism charges. The interview has been edited for publication.
1. Tell us about the latest arrests in connection to the Prairieland case and the “Antifa” charges. What is the significance of these charges?
The Prairieland Case has become a sprawling and dangerous example of the new face of repression. The case stems from a noise demonstration on July 4th outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center, which is in a small town south of Fort Worth. At that demo there was allegedly an exchange of gunfire between a police officer and one person at the scene in which the officer was injured. Now 18 people are facing life-altering charges and the highest levels of the Trump administration are using this case as an example of “ANTIFA” terrorism. Importantly, the federal case began moving three months after the arrests immediately following the now infamous NPSM-7 declaration.
2. What do you know about the conditions and treatment of the prisoners?
It’s clear that the state is attempting to break defendants’ will to fight by putting them through grueling pre-trial detention. For the first three months while in Johnson County Detention Center (the jail for the county where the arrests occurred), defendants were held in isolation, denied adequate medical care, subject to invasive strip searches at all hours (including at 2am), and held in unsanitary conditions. One defendant was even put in a cell with feces smeared on the wall, given cleaning supplies and told to clean it up.
Since October, defendants have been taken into federal custody and many of them were moved, including to a jail over two hours away, making visits from family extremely difficult. Defendants have little chance of being released before trial because of exorbitant bonds, most $10 million and some as high as $15 million. Some defendants have petitioned for these to be reduced, but for one who succeeded at this it was only reduced to $1.5 million.
3. Why is this case so important to support, particularly in relation to free speech, association, and assembly?
The state is only claiming one person fired a weapon, but have created an elaborate narrative of an underground terroristic “cell” of “ANTIFA” planning an ambush. They have presented no direct evidence of this claim and instead are presenting political speech and beliefs as evidence. As a result, things like some defendants running a print shop to print radical literature, or private signal messages discussing the limitations of protest marshals are being presented in open court as evidence of criminality. We should assume this approach is not isolated to this case, but will be extended and patterned across the country as more people take brave acts to defy ICE and Trump.
4. There seems to be a conspicuous absence of broad support for the Prairieland defendants from certain groups, why do you think this is? What would you say to people who are squeamish about denouncing the repression against the defendants due to accusations of violence?
I think the underlying reason is fear. As the stakes and intensity of state repression have increased, people have to make choices, and many so far have decided to try and avoid being caught in the cross hairs. This case in particular has been controversial because it does appear likely that a police officer was injured by gunfire (though he only spent a few hours in the hospital and is reportedly now back at work), and a number firearms were found in searches of people’s cars and homes (which is protected by the Second Amendment). Moreover, given that all the defendants that were allegedly present on July 4th are still in custody it has been extremely difficult to get compelling counter-narratives of the events out publicly.
However, there has been a shift in the mood of sympathy in the last few months as popular resistance has grown and the mendacious and unreliable nature of the Trump DOJ has become mainstream knowledge. We have seen more skepticism of the official narrative and more understanding of this case as a key precedent for anti-ICE protesting and other forms of dissent. This new momentum would not have been possible without the staunch support from organizations like the National Lawyers Guild, which has been championing our cause from early on.
5. What can people do to support the Prairieland prisoners?
There are a number of ways folks can support the defendants. At this point we still have a big need for fundraising to help pay for lawyers. The State of Texas seems intent on continuing to prosecute the cases even though the federal case is moving forward. That means we need two sets of lawyers for most of the defendants. Private attorneys have ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. Not to mention the ongoing needs of defendants’ loved ones to help pay mortgages, car payments, and support children so that the defendants have lives to come home to. We have an online fundraiser and we encourage everyone who’s able to contribute: https://www.givesendgo.com/supportdfwprotestors/
The second way folks can help is by writing to the defendants. This will be a long fight and we need to do everything we can to help give folks the strength they’ll need to win. Hearing from supporters far and wide is a huge help with that. Since these folks are pre-trial and the case is extremely political we ask people to be careful with what they write, but talking about all the beautiful things in the world goes a long way. To find out how to write the defendants and hear more about each of them please see our website: https://dfwdefendants.wordpress.com/
Finally, we ask people just to help get the word out. So far, this case has not gotten the level of attention we think it deserves. Talking to people about how unbelievable the official narrative is and how the government is going after people for their political beliefs will help not only grow support for the defendants but also deepen the resistance to the authoritarian turn in American politics.
We must use organizing against state repression as a way to grow and strengthen the broader movement. That applies to this case as much as any other. We encourage people to use this support to build solidarity and spread the spirit of resistance. Hold a letter writing, put on a benefit concert, or make stickers and post them up around town. The defendants in this case are believers in freedom and resistance to ICE’s kidnappings off the street. We must use every opportunity we can to honor that cause and build a movement for the kind of world we want to live in!
Photo: “Ice Pig” painted on the side of a vehicle at the Prairieland Detention Centeras part of the anti-ICE demonstration.
Reproduced below is a section from the November 8, 2025 publication of In Contempt, which is a monthly report on prison rebels, State repression, and news from an abolitionist perspective.
Image: DFW Support Committee, One Action from the October 3: International Day of Solidarity with the Prairieland Defendants
In an early morning raid on October 21, federal agents arrested another person in connection with a July 4 protest at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center.
In a press release, the DFW Support Committee writes:
Goering’s arrest continues a trend of escalation by police and prosecutors in a case that now involves 18 defendants. The government is using exorbitant bonds of up to $15 million to imprison all but one of the defendants. “It’s unbelievable that more than three months later the state is still trying to widen the net in this case,” said a spokesperson for the DFW Support Committee, a group of family and loved ones of defendants. “They’re attempting to prosecute this as an “Antifa” case in order to terrorize the movement in solidarity with immigrants, but it’s not going to work.”
Additionally, two of the defendants have now been federally charged with “providing material support to terrorists.” The Support Committee continues,
The case has been hailed by the Trump administration as the first legal case against “Antifa.” On October 15, federal charges were formally brought against two of the Prairieland defendants, Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts; the charges include 1 count of providing material support to terrorists, 3 counts of attempted murder of officers and employees of the United States, and 3 counts of discharging a firearm during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a crime of violence. FBI director Kash Patel called the defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the indictments on X. “This seems like a coordinated political campaign,” said Stephanie Shiver, wife of defendant Meagan Morris. “The feds didn’t do anything for months and then they bring everyone into court just days after Trump designated ‘Antifa’ a priority threat.” On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorism threat.
A regularly-updated zine featuring letter writing information is available to print & share.
As far as we know, the following are updated Prairieland Defendants, but always check with the DFW Support Committee before writing:
Bradford Winston Morris* 11136-512 (address letter to Meagan Morris) Benjamin Hanil Song 11137-512 Cameron Arnold* 11138-512 (address letter to Autumn Hill) Zachary Evetts 11141-512 Ines Houston Soto 11144-512
Prisoner Name & Number FMC Fort Worth Federal Medical Center P.O. Box 15330 Fort Worth, TX 76119
Johnson County Jail, TX Prisoner Name & Number P.O. Box 247 Phoenix, MD 21131
Elizabeth Soto 100005 Savanna Batten 100006 Rebecca Morgan 100008 Joy Gibson 100009 Maricela Rueda 10010
Wichita County Detention Center, TX Prisoner Name & Number P.O. Box 247 Phoenix, MD 21131
Image: Another Action from the October 3: International Day of Solidarity with the Prairieland DefendantsScrewston AFC Prairieland Defendants Fundraiser, “Coyotes Against Borders“
Maricela is a loving mother, a daughter, a sister, and a loyal friend. Her arrest has left her family facing sudden and overwhelming challenges. Maricela’s young daughter is now without her mother’s daily love and care, and her family must also manage her estate and responsibilities while navigating the uncertainty ahead. We are asking for your support to help ease the financial strain during this heartbreaking time. All funds will go directly toward caring for her daughter and managing the urgent needs of her household. Thank you for standing in solidarity with Maricela and those who love her.
Maricela has been sharing poetry from detention:
Image: Poem by Maricela Rueda
Free Des! Zines Are Not a Crime!
Its Going Down recently published a call to support Des
Des Revol—a tattoo artist, PoC anarchist, immigrant, and all-around sweetheart—is currently facing serious charges related to a larger case of political repression in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. But Des isn’t just a victim of trumped-up political prosecution, he’s a beloved artist and friend who loves nothing more than experimenting with new vegan recipes, digging into new books, looking at baby opossums and sometimes fostering them, and spending time with loved ones. As a longtime vegan dedicated to animal liberation, solidarity with nonhumans shows up in much of Desʼs artwork, including through his playful depictions of raccoons, cats, and other critters. Des extends this deep solidarity outward: heʼs a loving brother, son, and friend; he’s a free-spirited dreamer who takes good care of everyone and everything around him. Now stuck in a federal prison, Des is continuing to lend solidarity by drawing pictures for other inmates to send to their families.
Print & share the zine “Zines Are Not a Crime: Free Des Revol”
If convicted, people who showed up to a protest could face “decades of prison time,” the National Lawyers Guild says.
A wedding photograph of Autumn Hill and her wife.
On the night of July 4, 2025, Meagan Morris and Autumn Hill departed the Dallas home they shared with several others to go to an immigrant solidarity protest. This was no small thing for either of the two housemates. A 41-year-old transgender woman, Meagan had been out of work since her collapsed neck vertebrae forced her to leave her job at UPS. Autumn had little political experience save for volunteering for a local nonprofit and once marching in a Pride parade. But with the Trump administration conducting violent immigration raids across the country in service of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, both Morris and Autumn Hill wanted to head to Alvarado for a “noise demo” outside the 700-bed Prairieland Detention Center.
Noise demonstrations, or noise demos, are loud, raucous protests held outside jails, prisons, or detention centers. Participants try to make enough noise to let those inside know they aren’t forgotten, using anything from loudspeakers to fireworks. They’re an attempt to disrupt the isolating, carceral logic of the state. They do not, however, typically lead to terrorism charges — until now.
Some attendees at the July 4 noise demo are now facing charges including “providing material support to terrorists” and multiple counts of “attempted murder,” with FBI Director Kash Patel trumpeting unprecedented action against “Antifa-aligned anarchist violence extremists” days before President Trump signaled willingness to label Antifa a foreign terrorist organization.
But before they found themselves on the front lines of Trump’s crusade against anti-fascism, the future defendants thought they were going to attend a run-of-the-mill, if boisterous, protest.
“It all sounded pretty normal to me. They were going to make a lot of noise in solidarity with the ICE detainees in the Prairieland Detention Center,” said Stephanie Shiver, Morris’s wife. “This was a normal protest being planned.”
“I wanted to watch some fireworks, make sure the detainees knew people on the outside cared about them. I wanted to come home,” Morris told Truthout.
Prairieland defendant Meagan Morris.
But she never did.
According to the government’s narrative, laid out in court documents, the protest was in fact an “attack” against the Prairieland Detention Center. Correctional officers responded to vandalism and fireworks by calling on law enforcement from the Alvarado Police Department. The state alleges that someone then opened fire from a wooded area on a responding officer, who was struck in the neck and returned fire. However, a member of the DFW Support Committee who attended a federal preliminary hearing on September 30 tells Truthout that an FBI agent declined to answer a question regarding who actually shot first. The officer’s injury was apparently superficial, since local news reports said an officer suffered from a gunshot and was “treated and released” from the hospital by the following morning.
This minor injury was enough for law enforcement to paint the entire protest as an “ambush” designed to lure out and open fire on police officers, as the state alleges a mysterious “assailant” did. If the entire protest was a murderous ambush, the state’s argument effectively goes, each protester should be charged with attempted murder. According to the government’s case, the defendants’ all-black clothing, handheld radios, and use of encrypted messaging apps serve as evidence, not of their being security-conscious protesters in a period of escalating political repression but, rather, of being members of a “militant enterprise.” Further evidence includes “anti-government literature” discovered at a residence that the DFW Support Committee member reports in fact functioned as a zine print shop.
Officers ransacked the house looking for items specified in the no-knock warrant including “flyers, printed materials, social media posts, and communications” expressing “anti-government ideology.”
Right-wing media immediately labeled the participants in the autonomous action as the members of a shadowy, terroristic “Antifa cell.” Trump’s Department of Justice followed this reasoning when federal indictments were finally filed against some of the defendants this month, alleging their membership in a “North Texas Antifa Cell of at least eleven operatives.”
The day after the demonstration, Shiver, Autumn Hill, her wife Lydia (who asked to be identified only by her first name), and their remaining housemates were startled by a blaring megaphone announcing the start of a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Lydia tells Truthout that law enforcement broke down the front door with a battering ram attached to an armored personnel carrier. They threw deafening flash-bang grenades into the single-story residential home. One narrowly missed a resident who is a new mother and her one-month-old child. Officers ransacked the house looking for items specified in the no-knock warrant including “flyers, printed materials, social media posts, and communications” expressing “anti-government ideology.” The residents were forced outside, handcuffed for hours, and taken one-by-one into patrol cars for identification. Autumn Hill was identified as a protester from the night before and taken alone into a van. “That was the last time I saw her in person,” her wife Lydia told Truthout.
Prairieland defendant Savanna Batten.
Morris, Autumn Hill, and nine other alleged participants in the noise demo now stand accused of attempted murder, with Hill and co-defendant Zachary Evetts now the first people to receive terrorism charges for alleged membership in Antifa. The partner of one arrestee was charged with obstruction for supposedly moving a box of political pamphlets. One of the defendants, Benjamin Song, evaded police during a weeklong manhunt; four individuals were accused of helping him escape capture. Chillingly, after a support committee was organized to support the defendants, one of its members was herself arrested. An eighteenth individual was arrested on charges of aiding in the commission of terrorism earlier this week. The defendants, each of whom is being held for millions of dollars of bail, are now known collectively as the Prairieland Defendants.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) released a statement denouncing what it described as “unchecked state repression,” emphasizing that “people present at the noise demonstration are now facing decades of prison time and years of pre-trial detention, regardless of their actions or knowledge … Multiple people arrested were not even at the demonstration on July 4th. Most defendants remain detained without formal charges … and in limbo between state and federal jurisdiction.” According to the NLG, this made finding legal representation for defendants extraordinarily difficult. Federal charges would not be filed until over three months after the alleged shooting.
Lydia describes the notion that her wife, Autumn Hill, or housemate Meagan would have participated in an organized ambush of law enforcement officers as “completely ridiculous.” “They have too much to live for,” she said, “and on top of that, nothing about the state’s case makes any sense.”
“We … believe very strongly that this is meant as an intimidation tactic against anyone doing any kind of mutual aid work or any kind of activism in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The state’s evidence against the defendants includes the aforementioned references to anarchist literature, standard anti-surveillance equipment, and protest banners. It also references the fact that protesters were in possession of guns — in a state with permitless carry laws where the majority of households have a firearm. Though the state’s indictment alleges that the shooting was captured on camera and that spent casings were found at the scene, absent is any apparent evidence connecting any of the defendants in particular with pulling the trigger of a weapon pointed at a police officer. Morris was arrested after a firearm was found in her vehicle away from the scene of the alleged crime, though her wife emphasizes that she carries a weapon only in self-defense.
“My wife would often carry a pistol with her, even on basic dog walks,” Shiver told me. “She’s a transgender woman in the state of Texas. She’s very concerned for her personal safety; it’s a very threatening state to be a transgender person.”
Additionally, Morris is “actually a very disabled woman,” Shiver told me. “She’s got 95 percent collapsed vertebrae in her neck, and the conditions that she’s in in jail are causing her excruciating pain.” Morris was denied access to painkillers or a pillow, and only began receiving hormones after she had been detained for over a month. Prevented from accessing showers and the commissary, she reports being strip-searched by male guards, sometimes multiple times a day, despite being held alone.
“The conditions that she’s in in jail are causing her excruciating pain. They’re refusing to let anybody have even a basic pillow. She’s getting very little sleep, waking up multiple times in the middle of the night, feeling excruciating pain down her arm. She’s being refused her medications by the Johnson County Jail. She’s being held alone and essentially in solitary confinement,” Shiver said.
Prairieland defendant Dario Sanchez.
Xavier de Janon, director of Mass Defense for the National Lawyers Guild, said the NLG is “very concerned” with the treatment of the Prairieland 17 given the large number of individuals charged, the surveillance and raids conducted to arrest them, and the “extreme nature of the charges” — all stemming from a political protest. He told Truthout in August that while the defendants faced serious state charges, they were yet to be federally indicted, despite the federal government publicly threatening prosecution. This left the defendants in a “legal limbo.”
“This is state terror,” Lydia told me. “I don’t think we should mince words.” She and Shiver have joined the support committee that seeks to raise $50,000 for legal defense. “We on the support committee believe very strongly that this is meant as an intimidation tactic against anyone doing any kind of mutual aid work or any kind of activism in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Lydia said. “I struggle to believe that they’re going to stop at any given point. They’re not going to be satisfied.”
“What this case tells people is that if they go to certain protests, a rally, a noise demo, and something happens, they will be arrested too and charged with very serious felonies,” de Janon told Truthout. “It silences dissent. It makes people scared of even showing up to a noise demonstration out of this threat that if you go, you could be arrested, disappeared, and charged with very serious charges.”
“The government narrative of a big ambush? That’s baloney,” said Morris. “I have a wife, I have a house, I have found family, I have dogs. I wouldn’t put all of that at risk.”
After a July 4 noise demonstration at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, TX, to show solidarity with ICE detainees and protest ongoing deportations, there was an officer-involved shooting. Trump’s Department of Justice skewed the shooting as a terrorist ambush and 17 people were arrested on ruinous charges. Eleven face aggravated assault, attempted murder, and terrorism charges. Six others face accusations including evidence tampering, smuggling of persons, and hindering prosecution of terrorism. Almost all are charged with organized criminal activity, and the state set their bonds as high as $15 million.
Common practices in activist scenes have been cast as evidence of violent conspiracy. The FBI alleges that use of encrypted messaging app Signal, wearing black clothing, zine distribution, and speech critical of the government are all proof of a conspiracy to ambush police. Even two defendants’ commercial printer has become evidence of criminality.
But the state lies. We know our loved ones. They devote their free time to caring for people neglected by the state, such as those experiencing homelessness and the queer community of Dallas-Fort Worth. They have families, pets, and lives they intended to return to on July 5. The state is using the people we love to demonize leftists, anarchists, and anyone it deems “Antifa” and to justify its repression of broader left movements. In spite of this, we are only emboldened.
“No one should take you out of your home at gunpoint and bring you to a county you’ve never been to, just for removing someone from a group chat,” said defendant Dario Sanchez, the sole defendant released on bond. “I’ve been arrested and released three times, each one more ridiculous than the last. At times I’ve felt numb or distraught, but more than anything, I’m angry at how my life has been stolen from me. I’m not about to let anyone make me shy away from who I am or what I believe in.”
“With these scare tactics, the government tries to constrain what we imagine is politically possible,” said Lydia Koza, wife of defendant Autumn Hill. “They put my wife in a cage because she objected to putting people in cages. When the FBI raided our house and took her away, I thought they would kill me. Threatening to take everything away from me has only given me more purpose than ever – to fight for justice, for her and everyone.”
Across the world, from Seoul, South Korea, to Athens, Greece, we’ve seen international support. People have hosted banner drops, letter writing campaigns, and solidarity events with the defendants. While on the legal front, the state and federal governments have purposely held defendants in limbo—waiting to indict them, subjecting them to a multitude of abuses in jail—organizing as a collective has helped us feel less alone. Seeing our family, our friends, and our comrades be subject to arbitrary punishment, forced labor, strip searches, bio-hazardous conditions, and denial of medical care while incarcerated only strengthens our belief in dismantling the carceral system and creating a world without police.
A public fundraiser has been organized by the DFW Support Committee at givesendgo.com/SupportDFWprotestors. We ask that you give if you can, but please write letters to the defendants and spread the word of this case: DFWdefendants.wordpress.com. Show the state that repression only breeds resistance.
“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.
Image of a vehicle allegedly vandalized during the noise demonstration. Photo via Justice Department
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 Prairieland 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.
Join us this Tuesday, December 9 for an in-person anti-repression workshop where we will contextualize the Prairieland cases within a larger pattern of state repression, and build skills and strategies to resist the attack on our communities together.
This workshop will be hosted in Dallas-Fort Worth by the National Lawyers Guild’s Director of Mass Defense and co-directors at the People’s Law Collective, which helped beat the Atlanta Cop City RICO cases.
Please email us at dfwsupportcommittee@hacari.com for more details.
Nine Defendants in Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest CasePlead Not Guilty in Federal Arraignments This Week
Federal Jury Trials Are Scheduled to Start January 5 for Nine Defendants, As Sentencing Hearings Approach in March for Seven Defendants Who Pleaded Guilty Last Month
DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — Nine defendants in the Prairieland ICE Detention Center protest case pleaded ‘not guilty’ today to federal charges, including riot, discharging a firearm, attempted murder, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to conceal documents. A federal superseding indictment was filed in the Prairieland case on November 13 by Acting US Attorney Nancy Larson, just four days before Trump appointed former federal prosecutor Ryan Raybould as US Attorney on November 17.
Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, Benjamin Song, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto pleaded ‘not guilty’ at their federal arraignments on December 3. All nine defendants are fighting their charges by taking their cases to trial. Federal jury trials are scheduled to begin January 5, 2026, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth.
“The superseding indictment makes unproven claims, mischaracterizes facts, and takes quotes out of context,” said Stephanie Shiver, wife of defendant Meagan Morris. “Claims of adherence to a political ideology like anti-fascism, whether true or not, are not grounds to charge someone with terrorism and do not belong in an indictment,” continued Shiver. “By associating the Prairieland case with Antifa, the government is using terrorism charges to spread fear and intimidation, and to carry out sweeping political repression.”
Prejudicial statements related to these cases have been made repeatedly by officials at the highest levels of government, undermining the defendants’ ability to get a fair trial. The Trump administration has publicly claimed that the Prairieland case is the first legal case against Antifa, while Trump declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating Antifa as a domestic terrorism threat. FBI director Kash Patel has called the Prairieland defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the case on X.
Yet, supporters are refuting the claims of terrorism and planned violence. “As the Prairieland case progresses, it looks more and more like a protest case involving people expressing solidarity with detained immigrants,” said Amber Lowrey, sister of defendant Savanna Batten. “The federal government is trying to reframe protest activity as terrorism, and we’re seeing this attempted across the country, from Chicago to Portland, and now here in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The recent arraignments and not guilty pleas come as the District Court of Johnson County is set to hear a motion to quash the State indictment against Dario Sanchez on January 8. Fifteen people were indicted on State charges in the Prairieland case and nine people were indicted on federal charges, forcing many defendants to concurrently fight their State and federal charges. Seven defendants pleaded guilty to federal charges last month and are awaiting sentencing in March.
Exorbitant bonds of up to $15 million are being used in the State cases to imprison people who do not represent a flight risk or a danger to the community. Supporters believe that pretrial detention is being used by the government to hinder the defense and to maintain the dominant narrative in the media.
The Prairieland case stems from a noise demonstration in solidarity with detainees at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025. Toward the end of the demonstration, an officer with the Alvarado Police Department arrived and allegedly quickly became involved in an exchange of gunfire with someone else on the scene. The officer sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital shortly afterwards. Ten people were arrested at the scene or shortly after, and a manhunt ensued in the subsequent days for another defendant. Eight more defendants were arrested in the days and weeks following the protest.
Daniel Sanchez is facing federal charges for what free speech advocates say is a clear attack on the First Amendment.
Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which a police officer was shot.
There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas artist who wasn’t even at the protest. Daniel “Des” Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained “Antifa materials” after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there.
But the boxed materials aren’t Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, or whatever MAGA officials claim “Antifa” uses to wage its imaginary war on America. As prosecutors laid out in the July criminal complaint that led to the indictment, they were zines and pamphlets. Some contain controversial ideas — one was titled “Insurrectionary Anarchy” — but they’re fully constitutionally protected free speech. The case demonstrates the administration’s intensifying efforts to criminalize left-wing activists after Donald Trump announced in September that he was designating “Antifa” as a “major terrorist organization” — a legal designation that doesn’t exist for domestic groups — following the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Sanchez was first indicted in October on charges of “corruptly concealing a document or record” as a standalone case, but the new indictment merges his charges with those against the other defendants, likely in hopes of burying the First Amendment problems with the case against him under prosecutors’ claims about the alleged shooting.
It’s an escalation of a familiar tactic. In 2023, Georgia prosecutors listed “zine” distribution as part of the conspiracy charges against 61 Stop Cop City protesters in a sprawling RICO indictment that didn’t bother to explain how each individual defendant was involved in any actual crime. I wrote back then about my concern that this wasn’t just sloppy overreach, but also a blueprint for censorship. Those fears have now been validated by Sanchez’s prosecution solely for possessing similar literature.
Photos of the zines Daniel Sanchez is charged with “corruptly concealing.” Photo: U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas
There have been other warnings that cops and prosecutors think they’ve found a constitutional loophole — if you can’t punish reporting it, punish transporting it. Los Angeles journalist Maya Lau is suing the LA County Sheriff’s Department for secretly investigating her for conspiracy, theft of government property, unlawful access of a computer, burglary, and receiving stolen property. According to her attorneys, her only offense was reporting on a list of deputies with histories of misconduct for the Los Angeles Times.
If you can’t punish reporting it, punish transporting it.
It’s also reminiscent of the Biden administration’s case against right-wing outlet Project Veritas for possessing and transporting Ashley Biden’s diary, which the organization bought from a Florida woman later convicted of stealing and selling it. The Constitution protects the right to publish materials stolen by others — a right that would be meaningless if they couldn’t possess the materials in the first place.
Despite the collapses of the Cop City prosecution and the Lau investigation — and its own dismissal of the Project Veritas case — the Trump administration has followed those dangerous examples, characterizing lawful activism and ideologies as terrorist conspiracies (a strategy Trump allies also floated during this first term) to seize the power to prosecute pamphlet possession anytime they use the magic word “Antifa.”
That’s a chilling combination for any journalist, activist, or individual who criticizes Trump. National security reporters have long dealt with the specter of prosecution under the archaic Espionage Act for merely obtaining government secrets from sources, particularly after the Biden administration extracted a guilty plea from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But the rest of the press — and everyone else, for that matter — understood that merely possessing written materials, no matter what they said, is not a crime.
Guilt by Literature
At what point does a literary collection or newspaper subscription become prosecutorial evidence under the Trump administration’s logic? Essentially, whenever it’s convenient. The vagueness is a feature, not a bug. When people don’t know which political materials might later be deemed evidence of criminality, the safest course is to avoid engaging with controversial ideas altogether.
The slippery slope from anarchist zines to conventional journalism isn’t hypothetical, and we’re already sliding fast. Journalist Mario Guevara can tell you that from El Salvador, where he was deported in a clear case of retaliation for livestreaming a No Kings protest. So can Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, as she awaits deportation proceedings for co-writing an opinion piece critical of Israel’s wars that the administration considers evidence of support for terrorism.
At least two journalists lawfully in the U.S. — Ya’akub Ira Vijandre and Sami Hamdi — were nabbed by ICE just last month. The case against Vijandre is partially based on his criticism of prosecutorial overreach in the Holy Land Five case and his liking social media posts that quote Quranic verses, raising the question of how far away we are from someone being indicted for transporting a Quran or a news article critical of the war on terror.
Sanchez’s case is prosecutorial overreach stacked on more prosecutorial overreach. The National Lawyers Guild criticized prosecutors’ tenuous dot-connecting to justify holding 18 defendants responsible for one gunshot wound. Some defendants were also charged with supporting terrorism due to their alleged association with “Antifa.” Anarchist zines were cited as evidence against them, too.
Sanchez was charged following a search that ICE proclaimed on social media turned up “literal insurrectionist propaganda” he had allegedly transported from his home to an apartment, noting that “insurrectionary anarchism is regarded as the most serious form of domestic (non-jihadi) terrorist threat.” The tweet also said that Sanchez is a green card holder granted legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The indictment claims Sanchez was transporting those materials to conceal them because they incriminated his wife. But how can possession of literature incriminate anyone, let alone someone who isn’t even accused of anything but being present when someone else allegedly fired a gun? Zines aren’t contraband; it’s not illegal to be an anarchist or read about anarchism. I don’t know why Sanchez allegedly moved the box of documents, but if it was because he (apparently correctly) feared prosecutors would try to use them against his wife, that’s a commentary on prosecutors’ lawlessness, not Sanchez’s.
Violent rhetoric is subject to punishment only when it constitutes a “true threat” of imminent violence. Even then, the speaker is held responsible, not anyone merely in possession of their words.
Government prosecutors haven’t alleged the “Antifa materials” contained any “true threats,” or any other category of speech that falls outside the protection of the First Amendment. Nor did they allege that the materials were used to plan the alleged actions of protesters on July 4 (although they did allege that the materials were “anti-government” and “anti-Trump”).
We don’t need a constitutional right to publish (or possess) only what the government likes.
Even the aforementioned “Insurrectionary Anarchy: Organizing for Attack” zine, despite its hyperbolic title, reads like a think piece, not a how-to manual. It advocates for tactics like rent strikes and squatting, not shooting police officers. Critically, it has nothing to do with whether Sanchez’s wife committed crimes on July 4.
Being guilty of possessing literature is a concept fundamentally incompatible with a free society. We don’t need a constitutional right to publish (or possess) only what the government likes, and the “anti-government” literature in Sanchez’s box of zines is exactly what the First Amendment protects. With history and leaders like Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán as a guide, we also know it’s highly unlikely that Trump’s censorship crusade will stop with a few radical pamphlets.
The Framers Loved Zines
There’s an irony in a supposedly conservative administration treating anti-government pamphlets as evidence of criminality. Many of the publications the Constitution’s framers had in mind when they authored the First Amendment’s press freedom clause bore far more resemblance to Sanchez’s box of zines than to the output of today’s mainstream news media.
Revolutionary-era America was awash in highly opinionated, politically radical literature. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was designed to inspire revolution against the established government. Newspapers like the Boston Gazette printed inflammatory writings by Samuel Adams and others urging the colonies to prepare for war after the Coercive Acts. The Declaration of Independence itself recognized the right of the people to rise up. It did not assume the revolution of the time would be the last one.
One might call it “literal insurrectionist propaganda” — and some of it was probably transported in boxes.
The framers enshrined press freedom not because they imagined today’s professionally trained journalists maintaining careful neutrality. They protected it because they understood firsthand the need for journalists and writers who believed their government had become tyrannical to espouse revolution.
For all their many faults, the framers were confident enough in their ideas that they were willing to let them be tested. If the government’s conduct didn’t call for radical opposition, then radical ideas wouldn’t catch on. It sure looks like the current administration doesn’t want to make that bet.
This week, defendants Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Song, Meagan Morris, Ines Soto, Liz Soto, Savanna Batten, Maricela Rueda, and Daniel Sanchez Estrada were federally indicted together on the same case. These defendants, except for Sanchez Estrada, were indicted on a range of charges including riot, material support of terrorism, use of explosive, attempted murder, and discharge of a deadly weapon. Sanchez Estrada was indicted on corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal a document. Defendants Joy Gibson, Nathan Baumann, Lynette Sharp, Susan Kent, and Rebecca Morgan were charged with a single count of material support of terrorism. These defendants have signed plea deals and will formally enter a guilty plea on Wednesday, November 19 and Monday, November 24. The trial date for the federal case against Evetts, Hill, and others will likely be set in by the end of the month, and we expect the date to be in late December 2025 or early January 2026.
On the state case, Janette Goering had a writ of habeas corpus hearing on a reduction to her $5 million bond. She was denied the bond reduction with no explanation. Susan Kent pled not guilty to state charges and has a state jury trial set for March 2026. Dario Sanchez‘s state jury trial is still set for January 2026.
Twelve More People Federally Charged in the July 4 Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest Case
Majority of Defendants Expected to Enter ‘Not Guilty’ Pleas December 3, Refusing Early Plea Offer of Up To 15 Years in Prison
DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — Twelve people were federally charged late last week in connection with the immigrant solidarity demonstration at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center on July 4, 2025. The new indictment and charges, including rioting, attempted murder, and material support for terrorism, came as a majority of defendants are expected to plead not guilty on December 3. Notably, federal prosecutors are offering early plea deals with recommended sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
A number of defendants could plead guilty in the coming days as a result of pressure by the federal government. The terms of the plea agreements have not been made public, but some defendants are refusing to cooperate against their codefendants. Historically, in politically motivated cases, defendants who take federal plea deals that involve cooperating with the government against their codefendants have not necessarily received more lenient sentences, and may not lessen the potential legal harm stemming from their corresponding State cases.
“The prosecution is grasping at straws,” said National Lawyers Guild member Kris Hermes. “Plea deals offered this early show the government is desperate for a quick conviction that fits their nonsense ‘Antifa’ narrative. This case is a shoddy attempt to terrorize the movement in solidarity with immigrants, but it’s not going to work.”
The defendants who were federally charged last week were added to the case of Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts, who were federally indicted last month. US District Court Judge Mark Pittman granted the government’s motion earlier in November to designate the Prairieland case as “complex”, thereby delaying the trials of Hill and Evetts, which were scheduled to start later this month. Another defendant, Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was previously indicted separately and has now been added to this case, and his trial has been delayed from early December, as originally scheduled. It’s now unclear when Hill, Evetts, Sanchez-Estrada, and the other defendants will go to trial.
The Prairieland case has been hailed by the Trump administration as the first legal case against Antifa. FBI director Kash Patel called the defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the case on X. On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorism threat.
The latest indictments come just weeks after criminal charges were filed against Johnson County Sheriff Adam King, whose office is working with the federal government to prosecute the Prairieland defendants. Supporters of the defendants call into question the credibility and integrity of King and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. “I’m just worried about the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office respecting defendants’ rights and following the law,” said Irina Popova, a member of the DFW Support Committee. King is facing four felony charges, including aggravated perjury, corrupt influence, and abuse of official capacity, casting doubt about the veracity of the Prairieland case.
The new charges have been devastating for not only the defendants but also their families and loved ones. “It was really heartbreaking to see my sister is facing eleven of the twelve total charges. We all want her to come home,” said Diana Rueda-Muñoz, sister of Maricela Rueda. “But she’s strong, and we stand with her as she fights these outrageous charges.”
In addition to the federal charges, a total of fifteen defendants were also indicted last month on state charges, including aggravated assault, engaging in organized criminal activity, and hindering the prosecution of terrorism. The concurrent state and federal charges are forcing some defendants to defend themselves in two separate but related cases, with testimony and evidence from one potentially impacting and prejudicing the other.
The various cases stem from a noise demonstration in solidarity with ICE detainees at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025. Toward the end of the demonstration, an officer with the Alvarado Police Department arrived and allegedly quickly became involved in an exchange of gunfire with someone else on the scene. The officer sustained minor injuries, and was released from the hospital shortly afterwards. Ten people were arrested at the scene or shortly after, and a manhunt ensued in the subsequent days for another defendant. Eight more defendants were arrested in the days and weeks following the protest.
The Worker conducted an interview with a supporter of the Dallas/Fort Worth Support Committee (unaffiliated with The Worker), which has been organizing in defense of the anti-ICE activists in connection with a protest outside the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Alvarado, Texas. The demonstrators face trumped up domestic terrorism charges, with the case serving as a testing grounds for the Trump administration’s new “Antifa” executive order targeting anti-imperialist activism with terrorism charges. The interview has been edited for publication.
1. Tell us about the latest arrests in connection to the Prairieland case and the “Antifa” charges. What is the significance of these charges?
The Prairieland Case has become a sprawling and dangerous example of the new face of repression. The case stems from a noise demonstration on July 4th outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center, which is in a small town south of Fort Worth. At that demo there was allegedly an exchange of gunfire between a police officer and one person at the scene in which the officer was injured. Now 18 people are facing life-altering charges and the highest levels of the Trump administration are using this case as an example of “ANTIFA” terrorism. Importantly, the federal case began moving three months after the arrests immediately following the now infamous NPSM-7 declaration.
2. What do you know about the conditions and treatment of the prisoners?
It’s clear that the state is attempting to break defendants’ will to fight by putting them through grueling pre-trial detention. For the first three months while in Johnson County Detention Center (the jail for the county where the arrests occurred), defendants were held in isolation, denied adequate medical care, subject to invasive strip searches at all hours (including at 2am), and held in unsanitary conditions. One defendant was even put in a cell with feces smeared on the wall, given cleaning supplies and told to clean it up.
Since October, defendants have been taken into federal custody and many of them were moved, including to a jail over two hours away, making visits from family extremely difficult. Defendants have little chance of being released before trial because of exorbitant bonds, most $10 million and some as high as $15 million. Some defendants have petitioned for these to be reduced, but for one who succeeded at this it was only reduced to $1.5 million.
3. Why is this case so important to support, particularly in relation to free speech, association, and assembly?
The state is only claiming one person fired a weapon, but have created an elaborate narrative of an underground terroristic “cell” of “ANTIFA” planning an ambush. They have presented no direct evidence of this claim and instead are presenting political speech and beliefs as evidence. As a result, things like some defendants running a print shop to print radical literature, or private signal messages discussing the limitations of protest marshals are being presented in open court as evidence of criminality. We should assume this approach is not isolated to this case, but will be extended and patterned across the country as more people take brave acts to defy ICE and Trump.
4. There seems to be a conspicuous absence of broad support for the Prairieland defendants from certain groups, why do you think this is? What would you say to people who are squeamish about denouncing the repression against the defendants due to accusations of violence?
I think the underlying reason is fear. As the stakes and intensity of state repression have increased, people have to make choices, and many so far have decided to try and avoid being caught in the cross hairs. This case in particular has been controversial because it does appear likely that a police officer was injured by gunfire (though he only spent a few hours in the hospital and is reportedly now back at work), and a number firearms were found in searches of people’s cars and homes (which is protected by the Second Amendment). Moreover, given that all the defendants that were allegedly present on July 4th are still in custody it has been extremely difficult to get compelling counter-narratives of the events out publicly.
However, there has been a shift in the mood of sympathy in the last few months as popular resistance has grown and the mendacious and unreliable nature of the Trump DOJ has become mainstream knowledge. We have seen more skepticism of the official narrative and more understanding of this case as a key precedent for anti-ICE protesting and other forms of dissent. This new momentum would not have been possible without the staunch support from organizations like the National Lawyers Guild, which has been championing our cause from early on.
5. What can people do to support the Prairieland prisoners?
There are a number of ways folks can support the defendants. At this point we still have a big need for fundraising to help pay for lawyers. The State of Texas seems intent on continuing to prosecute the cases even though the federal case is moving forward. That means we need two sets of lawyers for most of the defendants. Private attorneys have ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. Not to mention the ongoing needs of defendants’ loved ones to help pay mortgages, car payments, and support children so that the defendants have lives to come home to. We have an online fundraiser and we encourage everyone who’s able to contribute: https://www.givesendgo.com/supportdfwprotestors/
The second way folks can help is by writing to the defendants. This will be a long fight and we need to do everything we can to help give folks the strength they’ll need to win. Hearing from supporters far and wide is a huge help with that. Since these folks are pre-trial and the case is extremely political we ask people to be careful with what they write, but talking about all the beautiful things in the world goes a long way. To find out how to write the defendants and hear more about each of them please see our website: https://dfwdefendants.wordpress.com/
Finally, we ask people just to help get the word out. So far, this case has not gotten the level of attention we think it deserves. Talking to people about how unbelievable the official narrative is and how the government is going after people for their political beliefs will help not only grow support for the defendants but also deepen the resistance to the authoritarian turn in American politics.
We must use organizing against state repression as a way to grow and strengthen the broader movement. That applies to this case as much as any other. We encourage people to use this support to build solidarity and spread the spirit of resistance. Hold a letter writing, put on a benefit concert, or make stickers and post them up around town. The defendants in this case are believers in freedom and resistance to ICE’s kidnappings off the street. We must use every opportunity we can to honor that cause and build a movement for the kind of world we want to live in!
Photo: “Ice Pig” painted on the side of a vehicle at the Prairieland Detention Centeras part of the anti-ICE demonstration.
Reproduced below is a section from the November 8, 2025 publication of In Contempt, which is a monthly report on prison rebels, State repression, and news from an abolitionist perspective.
Image: DFW Support Committee, One Action from the October 3: International Day of Solidarity with the Prairieland Defendants
In an early morning raid on October 21, federal agents arrested another person in connection with a July 4 protest at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center.
In a press release, the DFW Support Committee writes:
Goering’s arrest continues a trend of escalation by police and prosecutors in a case that now involves 18 defendants. The government is using exorbitant bonds of up to $15 million to imprison all but one of the defendants. “It’s unbelievable that more than three months later the state is still trying to widen the net in this case,” said a spokesperson for the DFW Support Committee, a group of family and loved ones of defendants. “They’re attempting to prosecute this as an “Antifa” case in order to terrorize the movement in solidarity with immigrants, but it’s not going to work.”
Additionally, two of the defendants have now been federally charged with “providing material support to terrorists.” The Support Committee continues,
The case has been hailed by the Trump administration as the first legal case against “Antifa.” On October 15, federal charges were formally brought against two of the Prairieland defendants, Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts; the charges include 1 count of providing material support to terrorists, 3 counts of attempted murder of officers and employees of the United States, and 3 counts of discharging a firearm during, in relation to, and in furtherance of a crime of violence. FBI director Kash Patel called the defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the indictments on X. “This seems like a coordinated political campaign,” said Stephanie Shiver, wife of defendant Meagan Morris. “The feds didn’t do anything for months and then they bring everyone into court just days after Trump designated ‘Antifa’ a priority threat.” On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorism threat.
A regularly-updated zine featuring letter writing information is available to print & share.
As far as we know, the following are updated Prairieland Defendants, but always check with the DFW Support Committee before writing:
Bradford Winston Morris* 11136-512 (address letter to Meagan Morris) Benjamin Hanil Song 11137-512 Cameron Arnold* 11138-512 (address letter to Autumn Hill) Zachary Evetts 11141-512 Ines Houston Soto 11144-512
Prisoner Name & Number FMC Fort Worth Federal Medical Center P.O. Box 15330 Fort Worth, TX 76119
Johnson County Jail, TX Prisoner Name & Number P.O. Box 247 Phoenix, MD 21131
Elizabeth Soto 100005 Savanna Batten 100006 Rebecca Morgan 100008 Joy Gibson 100009 Maricela Rueda 10010
Wichita County Detention Center, TX Prisoner Name & Number P.O. Box 247 Phoenix, MD 21131
Image: Another Action from the October 3: International Day of Solidarity with the Prairieland DefendantsScrewston AFC Prairieland Defendants Fundraiser, “Coyotes Against Borders“
Maricela is a loving mother, a daughter, a sister, and a loyal friend. Her arrest has left her family facing sudden and overwhelming challenges. Maricela’s young daughter is now without her mother’s daily love and care, and her family must also manage her estate and responsibilities while navigating the uncertainty ahead. We are asking for your support to help ease the financial strain during this heartbreaking time. All funds will go directly toward caring for her daughter and managing the urgent needs of her household. Thank you for standing in solidarity with Maricela and those who love her.
Maricela has been sharing poetry from detention:
Image: Poem by Maricela Rueda
Free Des! Zines Are Not a Crime!
Its Going Down recently published a call to support Des
Des Revol—a tattoo artist, PoC anarchist, immigrant, and all-around sweetheart—is currently facing serious charges related to a larger case of political repression in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. But Des isn’t just a victim of trumped-up political prosecution, he’s a beloved artist and friend who loves nothing more than experimenting with new vegan recipes, digging into new books, looking at baby opossums and sometimes fostering them, and spending time with loved ones. As a longtime vegan dedicated to animal liberation, solidarity with nonhumans shows up in much of Desʼs artwork, including through his playful depictions of raccoons, cats, and other critters. Des extends this deep solidarity outward: heʼs a loving brother, son, and friend; he’s a free-spirited dreamer who takes good care of everyone and everything around him. Now stuck in a federal prison, Des is continuing to lend solidarity by drawing pictures for other inmates to send to their families.
Print & share the zine “Zines Are Not a Crime: Free Des Revol”
If convicted, people who showed up to a protest could face “decades of prison time,” the National Lawyers Guild says.
A wedding photograph of Autumn Hill and her wife.
On the night of July 4, 2025, Meagan Morris and Autumn Hill departed the Dallas home they shared with several others to go to an immigrant solidarity protest. This was no small thing for either of the two housemates. A 41-year-old transgender woman, Meagan had been out of work since her collapsed neck vertebrae forced her to leave her job at UPS. Autumn had little political experience save for volunteering for a local nonprofit and once marching in a Pride parade. But with the Trump administration conducting violent immigration raids across the country in service of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, both Morris and Autumn Hill wanted to head to Alvarado for a “noise demo” outside the 700-bed Prairieland Detention Center.
Noise demonstrations, or noise demos, are loud, raucous protests held outside jails, prisons, or detention centers. Participants try to make enough noise to let those inside know they aren’t forgotten, using anything from loudspeakers to fireworks. They’re an attempt to disrupt the isolating, carceral logic of the state. They do not, however, typically lead to terrorism charges — until now.
Some attendees at the July 4 noise demo are now facing charges including “providing material support to terrorists” and multiple counts of “attempted murder,” with FBI Director Kash Patel trumpeting unprecedented action against “Antifa-aligned anarchist violence extremists” days before President Trump signaled willingness to label Antifa a foreign terrorist organization.
But before they found themselves on the front lines of Trump’s crusade against anti-fascism, the future defendants thought they were going to attend a run-of-the-mill, if boisterous, protest.
“It all sounded pretty normal to me. They were going to make a lot of noise in solidarity with the ICE detainees in the Prairieland Detention Center,” said Stephanie Shiver, Morris’s wife. “This was a normal protest being planned.”
“I wanted to watch some fireworks, make sure the detainees knew people on the outside cared about them. I wanted to come home,” Morris told Truthout.
Prairieland defendant Meagan Morris.
But she never did.
According to the government’s narrative, laid out in court documents, the protest was in fact an “attack” against the Prairieland Detention Center. Correctional officers responded to vandalism and fireworks by calling on law enforcement from the Alvarado Police Department. The state alleges that someone then opened fire from a wooded area on a responding officer, who was struck in the neck and returned fire. However, a member of the DFW Support Committee who attended a federal preliminary hearing on September 30 tells Truthout that an FBI agent declined to answer a question regarding who actually shot first. The officer’s injury was apparently superficial, since local news reports said an officer suffered from a gunshot and was “treated and released” from the hospital by the following morning.
This minor injury was enough for law enforcement to paint the entire protest as an “ambush” designed to lure out and open fire on police officers, as the state alleges a mysterious “assailant” did. If the entire protest was a murderous ambush, the state’s argument effectively goes, each protester should be charged with attempted murder. According to the government’s case, the defendants’ all-black clothing, handheld radios, and use of encrypted messaging apps serve as evidence, not of their being security-conscious protesters in a period of escalating political repression but, rather, of being members of a “militant enterprise.” Further evidence includes “anti-government literature” discovered at a residence that the DFW Support Committee member reports in fact functioned as a zine print shop.
Officers ransacked the house looking for items specified in the no-knock warrant including “flyers, printed materials, social media posts, and communications” expressing “anti-government ideology.”
Right-wing media immediately labeled the participants in the autonomous action as the members of a shadowy, terroristic “Antifa cell.” Trump’s Department of Justice followed this reasoning when federal indictments were finally filed against some of the defendants this month, alleging their membership in a “North Texas Antifa Cell of at least eleven operatives.”
The day after the demonstration, Shiver, Autumn Hill, her wife Lydia (who asked to be identified only by her first name), and their remaining housemates were startled by a blaring megaphone announcing the start of a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Lydia tells Truthout that law enforcement broke down the front door with a battering ram attached to an armored personnel carrier. They threw deafening flash-bang grenades into the single-story residential home. One narrowly missed a resident who is a new mother and her one-month-old child. Officers ransacked the house looking for items specified in the no-knock warrant including “flyers, printed materials, social media posts, and communications” expressing “anti-government ideology.” The residents were forced outside, handcuffed for hours, and taken one-by-one into patrol cars for identification. Autumn Hill was identified as a protester from the night before and taken alone into a van. “That was the last time I saw her in person,” her wife Lydia told Truthout.
Prairieland defendant Savanna Batten.
Morris, Autumn Hill, and nine other alleged participants in the noise demo now stand accused of attempted murder, with Hill and co-defendant Zachary Evetts now the first people to receive terrorism charges for alleged membership in Antifa. The partner of one arrestee was charged with obstruction for supposedly moving a box of political pamphlets. One of the defendants, Benjamin Song, evaded police during a weeklong manhunt; four individuals were accused of helping him escape capture. Chillingly, after a support committee was organized to support the defendants, one of its members was herself arrested. An eighteenth individual was arrested on charges of aiding in the commission of terrorism earlier this week. The defendants, each of whom is being held for millions of dollars of bail, are now known collectively as the Prairieland Defendants.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) released a statement denouncing what it described as “unchecked state repression,” emphasizing that “people present at the noise demonstration are now facing decades of prison time and years of pre-trial detention, regardless of their actions or knowledge … Multiple people arrested were not even at the demonstration on July 4th. Most defendants remain detained without formal charges … and in limbo between state and federal jurisdiction.” According to the NLG, this made finding legal representation for defendants extraordinarily difficult. Federal charges would not be filed until over three months after the alleged shooting.
Lydia describes the notion that her wife, Autumn Hill, or housemate Meagan would have participated in an organized ambush of law enforcement officers as “completely ridiculous.” “They have too much to live for,” she said, “and on top of that, nothing about the state’s case makes any sense.”
“We … believe very strongly that this is meant as an intimidation tactic against anyone doing any kind of mutual aid work or any kind of activism in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The state’s evidence against the defendants includes the aforementioned references to anarchist literature, standard anti-surveillance equipment, and protest banners. It also references the fact that protesters were in possession of guns — in a state with permitless carry laws where the majority of households have a firearm. Though the state’s indictment alleges that the shooting was captured on camera and that spent casings were found at the scene, absent is any apparent evidence connecting any of the defendants in particular with pulling the trigger of a weapon pointed at a police officer. Morris was arrested after a firearm was found in her vehicle away from the scene of the alleged crime, though her wife emphasizes that she carries a weapon only in self-defense.
“My wife would often carry a pistol with her, even on basic dog walks,” Shiver told me. “She’s a transgender woman in the state of Texas. She’s very concerned for her personal safety; it’s a very threatening state to be a transgender person.”
Additionally, Morris is “actually a very disabled woman,” Shiver told me. “She’s got 95 percent collapsed vertebrae in her neck, and the conditions that she’s in in jail are causing her excruciating pain.” Morris was denied access to painkillers or a pillow, and only began receiving hormones after she had been detained for over a month. Prevented from accessing showers and the commissary, she reports being strip-searched by male guards, sometimes multiple times a day, despite being held alone.
“The conditions that she’s in in jail are causing her excruciating pain. They’re refusing to let anybody have even a basic pillow. She’s getting very little sleep, waking up multiple times in the middle of the night, feeling excruciating pain down her arm. She’s being refused her medications by the Johnson County Jail. She’s being held alone and essentially in solitary confinement,” Shiver said.
Prairieland defendant Dario Sanchez.
Xavier de Janon, director of Mass Defense for the National Lawyers Guild, said the NLG is “very concerned” with the treatment of the Prairieland 17 given the large number of individuals charged, the surveillance and raids conducted to arrest them, and the “extreme nature of the charges” — all stemming from a political protest. He told Truthout in August that while the defendants faced serious state charges, they were yet to be federally indicted, despite the federal government publicly threatening prosecution. This left the defendants in a “legal limbo.”
“This is state terror,” Lydia told me. “I don’t think we should mince words.” She and Shiver have joined the support committee that seeks to raise $50,000 for legal defense. “We on the support committee believe very strongly that this is meant as an intimidation tactic against anyone doing any kind of mutual aid work or any kind of activism in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Lydia said. “I struggle to believe that they’re going to stop at any given point. They’re not going to be satisfied.”
“What this case tells people is that if they go to certain protests, a rally, a noise demo, and something happens, they will be arrested too and charged with very serious felonies,” de Janon told Truthout. “It silences dissent. It makes people scared of even showing up to a noise demonstration out of this threat that if you go, you could be arrested, disappeared, and charged with very serious charges.”
“The government narrative of a big ambush? That’s baloney,” said Morris. “I have a wife, I have a house, I have found family, I have dogs. I wouldn’t put all of that at risk.”
After a July 4 noise demonstration at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, TX, to show solidarity with ICE detainees and protest ongoing deportations, there was an officer-involved shooting. Trump’s Department of Justice skewed the shooting as a terrorist ambush and 17 people were arrested on ruinous charges. Eleven face aggravated assault, attempted murder, and terrorism charges. Six others face accusations including evidence tampering, smuggling of persons, and hindering prosecution of terrorism. Almost all are charged with organized criminal activity, and the state set their bonds as high as $15 million.
Common practices in activist scenes have been cast as evidence of violent conspiracy. The FBI alleges that use of encrypted messaging app Signal, wearing black clothing, zine distribution, and speech critical of the government are all proof of a conspiracy to ambush police. Even two defendants’ commercial printer has become evidence of criminality.
But the state lies. We know our loved ones. They devote their free time to caring for people neglected by the state, such as those experiencing homelessness and the queer community of Dallas-Fort Worth. They have families, pets, and lives they intended to return to on July 5. The state is using the people we love to demonize leftists, anarchists, and anyone it deems “Antifa” and to justify its repression of broader left movements. In spite of this, we are only emboldened.
“No one should take you out of your home at gunpoint and bring you to a county you’ve never been to, just for removing someone from a group chat,” said defendant Dario Sanchez, the sole defendant released on bond. “I’ve been arrested and released three times, each one more ridiculous than the last. At times I’ve felt numb or distraught, but more than anything, I’m angry at how my life has been stolen from me. I’m not about to let anyone make me shy away from who I am or what I believe in.”
“With these scare tactics, the government tries to constrain what we imagine is politically possible,” said Lydia Koza, wife of defendant Autumn Hill. “They put my wife in a cage because she objected to putting people in cages. When the FBI raided our house and took her away, I thought they would kill me. Threatening to take everything away from me has only given me more purpose than ever – to fight for justice, for her and everyone.”
Across the world, from Seoul, South Korea, to Athens, Greece, we’ve seen international support. People have hosted banner drops, letter writing campaigns, and solidarity events with the defendants. While on the legal front, the state and federal governments have purposely held defendants in limbo—waiting to indict them, subjecting them to a multitude of abuses in jail—organizing as a collective has helped us feel less alone. Seeing our family, our friends, and our comrades be subject to arbitrary punishment, forced labor, strip searches, bio-hazardous conditions, and denial of medical care while incarcerated only strengthens our belief in dismantling the carceral system and creating a world without police.
A public fundraiser has been organized by the DFW Support Committee at givesendgo.com/SupportDFWprotestors. We ask that you give if you can, but please write letters to the defendants and spread the word of this case: DFWdefendants.wordpress.com. Show the state that repression only breeds resistance.
“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.
Image of a vehicle allegedly vandalized during the noise demonstration. Photo via Justice Department
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 Prairieland 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.
