Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
theintercept.com
For years, Trump has been throwing hefty charges at protesters and seeing if he can win convcitions. He always failed — until now.

On March 13, 2026, nine defendants were found guilty in a federal court of providing support for terrorism as an alleged “antifa cell” following a July 4 noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. As the Guardian noted after this heartbreaking verdict, the case is a “major test of the First Amendment and whether the government [can] use a broad anti-terrorism statute to prosecute left wing protesters.” So far, the U.S. government has won—in what can only be described as a farce of a jury trial in Fort Worth in which little to no actual evidence was introduced.

All nine defendants, most incarcerated since early July, face lengthy prison sentences for various forms of dissent—including wearing black, having medic supplies on hand or a printer at home, deleting people from a Signal organizing thread, and setting off fireworks at the July 4 noise demo. But only one, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, a PoC immigrant, anarchist, tattoo artist, and beloved community member, is at risk of deportation too. Des’s “crime,” despite not even being there on July 4: Lending familial support to his wife, who was arrested for attending the demo, and moving his own box of zines.

While all the Prairieland defendants need your solidarity to get the charges dropped, especially given the chilling precedents that this case sets for anyone engaging in anti-ICE or indeed any form of resistance against U.S. christofascism, Never Again Action has a key rôle to play for Des. If his conviction sticks, it serves a devastating blow to the notion of any First Amendment protections, loudly echoing the Red Scare and McCarthy repression targeting Jewish and other immigrants, albeit now amped up to eviscerate the Constitution altogether. And as an immigrant activist, Des needs widespread support to fight for his freedom from both prison and deportation.

Action items related to the Prairieland 9:

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action. Emphasis original.)