Shooter, 7 others sentenced to decades in prison after violent incident at Texas ICE facility
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A man who shot and wounded a police officer during a protest outside an immigration center in Texas last year was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison on Tuesday, and other protesters accused of having ties to antifa were sentenced to decades in federal prison.
Benjamin Song was convicted of attempted murder last March after prosecutors say he opened fire on a police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado in a July 4, 2025, incident.
The other seven protesters sentenced on Tuesday received sentences ranging from 30 to 70 years.
“Our issue with this case has always been that this is not a terrorist group. This is a group of kids and young adults who really have big hearts and really want their voices to be heard,” said Philip Hayes, Song’s attorney, outside the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. “It was not intended for anyone to get hurt. It was not intended for a shot to go off.”
Pastor Diane Garcia says many families in her Texas church have been torn apart by ICE arrests and are struggling to make ends meet.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of the two judges presiding over the trial, said that what happened last July was not a protest but an “attack on democracy.”
“The need to curb this type of behavior is high,” O’Connor said.
He said his client will appeal the sentence.
“Song, except for this day, had a good life. Former Marine. Good student,” Hayes said. “He had many good qualities that were overlooked. The judge continued to give his best.”
The defendants deny association with antifa
One of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was convicted of concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents. Some plead guilty to materially supporting terrorists rather than take their case to court.
Prosecutors say the eight are members of antifa, an anti-fascist movement that has become a symbol of the Trump administration. They refused any association and ended up attending the demonstration to show support for the immigrants who are inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.
The facility was among several across the US that were described as crowded amid the Trump administration’s deportation blitz.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the case against the Prairieland protestors is the first to charge people the Trump administration believes are opposed to terrorism-related charges.
President Donald Trump last fall signed an executive order designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, although there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Front burner33:15What exactly is Antifa?
Critics warn the case could have a major impact on protests given that organizations operating within the US should be protected by First Amendment rights to free speech.
Abbreviated as “anti-fascist,” antifa is not a single movement but an umbrella term for far-left opposition groups that confront or oppose neo-Nazis and white supremacists in protests.
The National Lawyers Guild — a decades-old progressive bar association — followed the Prairieland case, expressing concern about the rights of free expression, association, and association of minority defendants. The organization also pointed out that the judge in this case made many decisions that harmed their right to a free trial.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 people with interfering with the Trump administration’s attack on Minnesota. They said the protesters were members of antifa who were plotting against the federal government to prevent arrests and deportations by setting up roadblocks around government buildings and throwing snow at government vehicles, among other actions.
