On 23 June, federal judges in Fort Worth, Texas, sentenced eight individuals to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years for their roles in a violent 4 July 2025 protest at the Prairieland ICE detention centre in Alvarado. Benjamin Song, a former US Marine Corps reservist convicted of attempted murder for shooting a police officer, received the maximum 100-year term. Seven co-defendants were given between 30 and 70 years for charges including material support to terrorists, rioting, and conspiracy to use explosives. A ninth defendant, Ines Soto, is due to be sentenced in July.

According to the US Justice Department, the defendants were members of a North Texas cell of the Antifa movement, which President Donald Trump designated a domestic terrorist organisation in September 2025. Prosecutor Frank Gatto told the court that the group held extremist beliefs and viewed violence as justified, urging stiff penalties to deter similar acts. US District Judge Reed O’Connor described the incident as “an assault on democracy,” not a protest. Defence lawyers and family members rejected the Antifa label, insisting the demonstrators intended only a noisy show of solidarity with detained immigrants. Song’s attorney, Phillip Hayes, argued his client provided “suppressive fire” and that the officer was hit by a ricochet, adding that an appeal is planned. Supporters noted that one defendant, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, received 30 years for moving a box of antifascist literature after the event, despite not being present at the scene.

The sentences are longer than any handed down to participants in the 6 January 2021 Capitol breach, a comparison drawn by US civil liberties groups and legal observers. The case marks the first major conviction under the Trump administration’s crackdown on far-left militancy, which has included an FBI commitment to “dismantle” Antifa networks. Viewed from Washington, the outcome reinforces a policy of treating domestic extremist violence as terrorism, though the US lacks a formal domestic terror statute. Russian state media coverage placed the sentencing within a broader narrative of escalating confrontations around ICE facilities, citing the January 2026 fatal shooting of a protester by an ICE agent in Minneapolis as evidence of deepening societal strife over immigration enforcement.

The ninth defendant’s sentencing is scheduled for July, while Song’s legal team prepares an appeal. The Justice Department has indicated that further prosecutions of alleged Antifa affiliates may follow, as the administration seeks to institutionalise the domestic terrorism framing for far-left groups. The FBI, according to senior official Kash Patel, continues round-the-clock operations targeting such networks.