Federal court hands harsh sentences in Texas ICE attack case

The federal court punishment was extraordinary because the violence was extraordinary: an Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck, another attacker fired 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers, and prosecutors said the ambush was designed to overwhelm a detention center, not merely send a political message. Benjamin Hanil Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, received 100 years in federal prison for attempted murder in the attack on the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas.

The sentences handed down on June 23, 2026, also included 50-year terms for two co-defendants, with other defendants receiving decades-long punishments. The result came three months after a federal jury in Fort Worth convicted nine defendants in a 12-day trial that began Feb. 23, 2026, after hearing from more than 45 witnesses and reviewing more than 210 exhibits. Seven others had already pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists, and the FBI and Justice Department said 16 people were brought to justice through convictions and guilty pleas.

Prosecutors said Song joined ten others just after 10:30 p.m. on July 4, 2025, in an organized assault that used fireworks and graffiti as a diversion before the group attacked officers with firearms. Investigators said the assailants wore black military-style clothing, relied on Signal chats and reconnaissance images to plan the attack, and that Song bought four guns associated with the ambush. Two AR-style rifles were found at the scene, one fitted with a binary trigger that could double the rate of fire.

ICE said the attack was coordinated to vandalize the facility and disrupt operations. Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons called the violence “incomprehensible,” and said those responsible would be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The officer wounded in the shooting was expected to recover and had been discharged from the hospital.

The case has become politically explosive because federal prosecutors have presented it as a domestic-terrorism prosecution tied to antifa, while Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have cast it as part of a broader federal campaign to dismantle the movement. The harsh sentences also invite comparison with Jan. 6 cases, but the legal distinction is stark: courts have treated the Alvarado attack as an armed ambush on law enforcement, marked by planning, guns, and direct harm to officers, rather than ideology alone.

Song was captured in Dallas after a weeklong manhunt, and federal officials said his arrest was the fourteenth in the case. The attack came just days before an armed activist shot a U.S. Border Patrol official in McAllen, underscoring how violently immigration enforcement had become a flashpoint in Texas.