Leftists are banding together with activities such as poetry readings and bake sales to raise money for their jailed comrades in Texas after the Trump administration won landmark convictions against an Antifa terror cell.
Groups in the U.S. and beyond posted calls to action or statements decrying authoritarianism over sixteen people being convicted of federal crimes tied to a July 2025 attack on an immigration facility, a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis found. The groups describe the convictions as detrimental to their radical causes and a sign of dark times ahead under President Donald Trump — while also taking inspiration from the defendants’ boldness.
Federal and Texas authorities began a wave of arrests on July 4 when several armed, black-clothed activists arrived at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Prairieland Detention Center for a protest that turned violent. The mob vandalizing property before defendant Benjamin Song, nicknamed “Champagne,” began shooting at a local police officer who tried talking to them, according to Department of Justice (DOJ) evidence.
Groups that see the Antifa-linked prisoners persecuted heroes are organizing in various ways to help their plight.
“Many of the defendants have been convicted and are facing decades-long sentences for simply doing a sit-in outside a detention center,” a March 26 Instagram post by four Michigan-based groups falsely claimed. The “sit-in” was a violent attack that involved surveilling the facility beforehand, written plans for “Peaceful Protest no more,” arriving with multiple firearms, throwing fireworks and shooting at law enforcement, court records show.
“Come support us … as we show solidarity and raise funds for the legal fund of the Prairieland 19 who resisted ICE in Texas,” the post said, announcing an April 4 event meant for University of Michigan students. The post included a website address for DFW Support Committee, a Texas-based group that has raised funds for the defendants and organized protests outside their Fort Worth courthouse.
Seven federal defendants pleaded guilty to crimes in the months following the July incident, while jurors convicted Song and nine others in March and others were arrested on state charges, the DCNF and other outlets reported. The arrestees are a mix of those who were present at the July riot and those accused of helping the group evade law enforcement scrutiny or arrest.
Jurors convicted eight defendants of material support for terrorism, rioting and explosives offenses, and convicted Song of attempted murder and a ninth person of concealing evidence. The seven cooperating defendants pleaded guilty to terrorism charges for planning the riot or helping Song flee justice.
Song demanded a new trial in an April motion that cast doubt on whether he intended to kill the cop, who was shot in the neck, and claimed he fired at the ground. A judge denied the request.
The DFW Support Committee website shows instructions for raising funds for defendants in an Antifa attack case in Texas. (Image credit: Screenshot/prairielanddefendants.com)
“We know that the fight doesn’t end here, as we have to garner more support as we look toward appeals and supporting 13 defendants during their state trials, including 9 of those who were just tried in federal court,” DFW Support Committee said on its website after the federal verdicts. The site also contains guidance on sending letters to prisoners, organizing fundraisers through seemingly innocuous events such as bake sales and other projects. The committee called the jury verdicts “stunning” and reflective of a “sham trial, built on political persecution and ideological attacks coming from the top.”
Seven other activist groups in Santa Cruz and Oakland, California, Hudson Valley, New York, Oregon, and elsewhere encouraged donating to the DFW Support Committee following the trial verdicts. Their statements called the convictions “devastating,” “oppression and retaliation” and part of a “terroristic assault on immigrants and protesters.” A “Unitarian Universalist” church in Fort Worth, Texas, advertised weekly fundraising dinners for the defendants in May Facebook posts, calling the July terrorist attack “a noise demo.”
Prosecutors described all federal defendants as members of a North Texas “Antifa cell” largely led by Song, making the case the first U.S. terrorism prosecution explicitly targeting the so-called anti-fascist movement. Trump labeled Antifa a domestic terrorist organization in a September executive order that called for greater government attention toward the threat.
The Washington-based liberal organization Defending Rights and Dissent and the National Lawyers Guild hosted defendant Dario Sanchez in an April virtual panel focused on “the dangerous precedent” the prosecutions set. Johnson County charged Sanchez with hindering the prosecution of terrorism and tampering with or fabricating evidence by deleting suspects from group chats, though he denies any wrongdoing. A judge dismissed the hindering prosecution charge on May 22.
Sanchez told panelists that watching comrades face such consequences has created a “chilling effect” for some North Texas activists while emboldening others.
“Certainly, there are people that I know who have decided that they’d rather just stay home right now, right?” he said.
Dario Sanchez speaks about his Johnson County, Texas, charges in a virtual interview aired Apr. 8, 2026. (Image credit: YouTube/Defending Rights and Dissent)
“Even when it comes to simple things like passing out harm reduction supplies in our queer neighborhoods here in North Texas … they were still worried that they might be targeted,” he continued. “So, there has been a chilling effect to some extent. But on the other hand, I do feel like because of the organizing around this case that there has been some kind of back-and-forth there, where there are still people who are deciding that now is the time for them to speak up about these sorts of things.”
The case even sent shockwaves to Europe, where far-left violence previously prompted Trump to impose terrorism sanctions on Antifa-aligned groups.
“The accusations of the government are absurd, and the police response has been extreme, making it obvious that this is part of an effort to criminalize dissent,” said the Bergen Art Book Fair website based in Norway, quoting the DFW Support Committee website and linking to it. The annual fair’s schedule, organized by the artist group Pamflett, included an April 10 presentation backing a Prairieland defendant whom jurors convicted of hiding pro-insurrection anarchist materials nicknamed “zines.”
“As fascism continues to run rampant in the US under Trump and ICE is kidnapping people off the streets without any due process, we must turn our attention to how the act of dissent is being labeled domestic terrorism and how zines fit into the equation,” the event description says.
One Oregon-based group’s plans did not pan out. The Williamette Valley Abolition Project announced a “strip club” event planned for May 31 featuring performers whose earnings would go toward the committee, the DCNF previously reported. The group later said the “venue backed out” in a deleted Instagram post.
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